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I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 

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RAYS FROM THE SUN OF 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



DK. NEWTON'S BOOKS. 



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* — 

"We know of no living writer who has a happier faculty for 
illustrating Scripture truth, or a greater fund of appropriate illus- 
tration in the way of history and anecdote to draw upon, or who 
is more chaste in st-yle4bul matter, than Dr. Newton. He is the 
prince of preachers to children, and is equally at home in instruct- 
ing their elders. This selection from his works (The Wonder Case) 
is a valuable library of religious reading, interesting and instruc- 
tive." — New York Observer. 

" Dr. Richard Newton is the best living writer on religious sub- 
jects for children." — Illustrated Christian Weekly. 

" Dr. Newton's books are no mean helps to ministers in their 
labors for the spiritual welfare of the lambs of the flock." — Chris- 
tian Advocate. 



ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS. 



Rays 



FROM THE 



Sun of Righteousness. 



BY THE 

Rev. RICHARD NEWTON, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF THE " JEWEL CASE," " THE WONDER CASE," ETC. 



-oo^tf 




NEW YORK: 
ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

530 Broadway. 

1876. 






The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Copyright, 
By Robert Carter and Brothers. 
1876. 



Cambridge : 
Press of John Wilson and Son. 



PREFACE. 



It is now about twenty-five years since the 
writer of this little book published his first vol- 
ume of sermons for the young. That volume 
was called " Rills from the Fountain of Life." 
It was intended to help young persons who 
were trying to serve God, and find their way to 
heaven. He has since been permitted to pub- 
lish a number of similar volumes. These have 
all had the same object in view. This present 
volume differs from the others in one thing; 
viz., that the sermons in it are all especially 
occupied in telling about the Lord Jesus Christ. 
They speak of him as the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, as the Light of the World, as the Bright 
and Morning Star; and so on all through the 
volume. 

It is the hope of the writer that this may 
prove the best and most useful of all his books. 
He cherishes this hope for the reason that the 
book is all about the blessed Saviour. The 
knowledge of him is the most important of all 



6 PREFACE. 

knowledge. There are so many things for us to 
know about Jesus ; and these are all so full of 
meaning, and the meaning is so very important, 
that we may go on studying them as long as we 
live, and we shall always find in them something 
fresh, and interesting, and profitable. Saint 
Paul tells us that the love of Christ "passeth 
knowledge." He means by this that we never 
can take it all in, never get to the end or the 
bottom of it. In studying it, we are like per- 
sons sailing over an ocean that has no shore. 
We might go sailing on for ever. And what 
Saint Paul said of the love of Christ is just as 
true of his power, and wisdom, and grace, and 
goodness. They are all " past finding out." We 
cannot find them out fully, though we may in 
part. 

And if this is so, then nothing can be more 
useful to us than that which helps us to find out 
the treasures of love, and grace, and knowledge 
that are hid in Jesus. 

If God shall bless this volume by making it 

the means of leading some who read it, whether 

young or old, to think more of Jesus, and try to 

love and serve him better, the writer will feel 

amply rewarded. 

* J R. N. 

May, 1876. 



CONTENTS. 



Sermon Page 

I. Jesus the Sun of Righteousness . 11 

II. Jesus the Light of the World . . 45 

HI. The Bright and Morning Star . . 77 

IV. Jesus the Saviour 107 

V. Jesus the Way 137 

VI. Jesus the Truth 169 

VII. Jesus the Life 201 

VIII. Jesus the Vine 233 

IX. Jesus the Plant of Renown . . . 267 

X. Jesus the Shield 301 



I. 

JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



EATS 

FROM 

THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" The Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings." 
Malachi iv. 2. 

We begin now a new course of sermons for 
the young. This will be about the character 
and work of Jesus. We shall take up some 
of the different names and titles by which he 
is made known to us in the Bible. And if 
we consider Jesus as the Sun that gives us 
all our light and life, and warmth and bless- 
ing, then every passage of Scripture that tells 
us any thing about him may be regarded as 
a beam of light from this Sun. And so we 
may call these sermons Rays from the Sun 
of Righteousness. And, before going on to 



12 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

speak of these rays, it will be proper to speak 
about Jesus as the Sun from whom they shine 
forth. For this purpose, we have taken these 
words from the prophet Malachi, as our text 
for the first sermon in this course : — 

" The Sun of Righteousness shall rise with 
healing in his wings." 

" The Sun of Righteousness," here spoken 
of, means Jesus. This is one of the names 
or titles given to him, or one of the figures 
made use of in the Bible, to show us what 
Jesus is to his people, or what he does for 
them. And the question for us to consider 
now is, What is it that the sun does, on 
account of which Jesus may well be com- 
pared to it ? There are three things that the 
sun does, or three kinds of power that the sun 
exercises, which show us how well Jesus may 
be compared to the sun. 

The first power that the sun exercises is a 
great drawing power. And for this rea- 
son Jesus is like the sun. 

Men call this great power the attraction of 
the sun. Now to attract means to draw. 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 13 

The attracting power of the sun is the power 
which it has of drawing things to it. 

The sun has a number of large worlds around 
it. It stands in the centre of these worlds, like 
a father in the midst of his family. These 
worlds all move round the sun, and are kept 
in their places by the drawing power which 
the sun exerts. And all the worlds, in the 
family of worlds to which our globe belongs, 
feel this power of the sun. The least of them 
feels it, and the largest of them feels it. The 
one that is nearest to him feels it, and the 
one that is farthest off from him feels it too. 
The world, in our family, that is the farthest 
off from the sun, is the planet Neptune. We 
cannot see him with our naked eye. This 
far-off brother of ours is about twenty-eight 
hundred millions of miles away from us. 
We can form no idea how many there are in 
one million ; much less can we form any idea 
of these hundreds of millions. But just let 
us make one calculation, to find out how long 
it would take us to go from our earth to the 
planet Neptune. Suppose there was a rail- 



14 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

way from our earth, reaching away off to that 
distant world ; and suppose we could get 
into a car here, and set off to visit our outside 
brother Neptune. Suppose the train was a 
through train, and was to travel at the rate 
of thirty miles an hour, night and day, with- 
out stopping : how long do you think it 
would take to get there ? Perhaps some of 
you may think it would be a nice trip to take 
some summer vacation. A summer vacation, 
indeed ! Why, it would take us more than 
a thousand years to get there, travelling all 
the time at thirty miles an hour. Suppose 
we had started on this trip in the year in 
which our Saviour was born. Suppose we 
had only spent a few days on the planet Nep- 
tune, and then had started on our way back ; 
and suppose we had kept on travelling, night 
and day, at the same rate without stopping, 
ever since then. We should not be back yet. 
We should still have to travel on for more 
than two hundred years longer before we 
reached home. 

And yet the sun has power to draw that 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 15 

far-off planet towards it, so that it never gets 
out of its place. 

And Jesus is just like the sun in this 
respect. He has a wonderful power to draw 
people to him. When he was on earth, he 
said : " And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto me" (John xii. 32). One thing 
meant by this lifting up of Jesus was his 
crucifixion. This was what he meant when 
he said : " As Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man 
be lifted up " (John iii. 14). When Jesus was 
crucified, he was nailed to the cross, and then 
lifted up on it, and left to hang there till he 
died. That was one way in which he was 
lifted up. 

Another way in which he is lifted up is 
by telling people about him. When a minis- 
ter is preaching to his people about Jesus, or 
when a Sunday-school teacher is talking to 
his class about the love of Jesus in dying for 
us, then it may be said that both these per- 
sons are lifting up Jesus before those who 
hear them. And when Jesus says he would 



16 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

draw all men unto him, if he were lifted up, 
what he means is, not that every individual 
who hears about him will be drawn to him 
and be saved, but that men of all hinds will 
be made to feel the drawing power which he 
exercises, and so will be saved by him. 

If there were time to do so, it would be very 
easy to give illustrations to show how people 
of every kind have been drawn to Jesus, by 
hearing the gospel preached and taught. 
Rich people and poor people, young people 
and old people, learned people and ignorant 
people, have been thus drawn to him. 

Here is a story about something that took 
place at a mission school in South Africa. 
It shows how even young children may be 
drawn to Jesus themselves, and then m&y 
be made use of to draw others to him. A 
man in Africa, who cared nothing for religion, 
was persuaded to send two of his children 
to the mission school : one of these was a 
boy eight j^ears old, the other a girl of six. 
As the station was some distance from their 
home, the children had to board at the house 



JESUS THE STJK OF KIGHTEOUSNESS. 17 

of the missionary. After they had been 
there some time, however, the father wanted 
the boy to help him in taking care of the 
cattle ; so he went to the school to take him 
away. But the little fellow had learned to 
love his teachers. He had become verv fond 

4/ 

of the lessons he was learning ; and, above 
all, he was feeling his heart drawn to Jesus, 
and was beginning to love him. He did not 
wish to go home, and told his father so, and 
begged that he might be allowed to stay. 
When asked the reason why he wished to 
stay, he said, " Because I can't learn any thing 
good at home." 

44 And what good can such a child as you 
learn here ? " asked his father. 

44 Father," said the boy, " I have learned 
something good here already." 

44 What have you learned ? " was the next 
question. 

44 1 have learned this beautiful text : 4 This 
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta- 
tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world 
to save sinners.' And, father, I have learned 



18 THE SUN OF KIGHTEOUSNESS. 

who Jesus Christ is. He is the Son of God. 
Yes, father, and I have learned who sinners 
are. We are all sinners." 

These words of his little boy had such an 
effect on the father, that he went home alone 
and left his boy at the school ; and in a 
few weeks he came back to the school a 
changed man. That one verse had drawn 
his heart to Jesus. He became a Christian, 
and was baptized. 

John Wesley, the honored founder of the 
Methodist branch of the church, was once 
attacked bv a robber, who demanded his 
money. After handing it to him, as the man 
was going away, Mr. Wesley called him back, 
and said : " My friend, let me say a word to 
you. The time may come when you will 
be very sorry for the kind of life you are 
now leading. Remember, then, this passage 
from the Bible, 4 The blood of Jesus Christ 
his Son cleanseth from all sin.' " He said no 
more, and they parted. 

Many years after, as Mr. Wesley was one 
day leaving a church where he had been 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 19 

preaching, a person came up to him, and 
asked if he remembered being robbed once, 
in a particular place. "I do," said Mr. W. 
" I was the man who robbed you, sir," said 
the stranger. " I wish to thank you for the 
words you spoke to me on that occasion. 
That sweet verse of Scripture that you quoted 
there took such hold of my mind, that I 
could never rest till I turned from my wicked 
ways in deep repentance, and became a Chris- 
tian." Jesus was lifted up to this robber 
when Mr. W. spoke those simple words to 
him ; and that one text from the Bible was 
made the means of drawing that robber to 
Jesus. 

But what is it in Jesus that draws men 
so ? It is his wonderful love in dying for us. 
Let me try to show you how this is. 

There was a good Christian family in Eng- 
land. Mr. and Mrs. Stone were the names of 
the father and mother, and they had four 
little children. Mr. Stone's brother had 
died, leaving a little orphan boy, named 
Jack, about nine years old. As he was the 



20 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

boy's uncle and his nearest relative, Mr. 
S. thought he ought to take him into his 
family, and bring him up among his own 
children ; but Jack was such a wild, bad boy 
that he was afraid of the bad effect he might 
have on the other children. But finally it 
was concluded that Jack was to come, and 
so he came. 

He had never been taught to obey, and he 
was very lawless and rude. But he had 
worse faults than these. He loved to tease 
and worry his little cousins. He had an 
ugly disposition, and sometimes broke out 
into very violent fits of temper, when he 
would destroy any thing he could lay his 
hands on. Punishment had no effect. Rea- 
soning and coaxing had no effect. His one 
answer to every thing said to him was, " I 
dont care." 

His cousin Susie was a gentle, delicate 
little thing. She felt very sorry for Jack, 
because no one loved him ; and she was 
always trying in some sweet, loving way to 
make him better. But one day he got very 



JESUS THE SUST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 21 

angry with her, and in his rage threw her 
doll into the fire, tore her hair, and actually 
scratched her arm till the blood came. 

As a punishment for this, he was locked up 
in the lumber room, which was called " the 
jail," because it had iron bars across the 
windows, having been once used as a nursery. 
He was put on prisoner's fare, bread and 
water, till he should promise to do better. 
But he was cross and sullen, and had nothing 
to say but, " I dont care" Nobody felt so 
sorry for Jack as Susie did. 

" Mother," she said at night, "I can't go 
to sleep for thinking of poor Jack, all alone, 
with no light, and nothing ; " and her little 
lip quivered. 

The third day had come, and Jack showed 
no signs of sorrow for his fault. " I don't 
care " was all he would s&y. " Mother," 
said Susie, " mayn't I go and be shut up, 
while Jack comes out to see how pleasant it 
is ? There is no sun there, nor any thing." 

Her mother looked tenderly in the dear 
child's face, and said, " Go, Susie." 



22 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Susie went to Jack's door, and unlocking 
it said, " I asked mother if I might come and 
take 3 7 our place, Jack, while j r ou go out and 
see how pleasant it is, — it is so dismal 
and lonely here." 

Jack looked up and stared at her. " What 
a fool you are!" said he. Then he walked 
slowly out, while Mrs. Stone came and locked 
Susie in. " Let Jack take my dinner down- 
stairs, mother," whispered Susie, " and I'll 
take his dinner up here." 

At dinner-time, Jack took his seat opposite 
Susie's vacant chair. " You can carry up 
Susie her bread and water," said Mrs. Stone, 
handing him the tray. He took it and 
walked away, looking very sober, if not 
softened. According to Susie's wish, he 
stayed downstairs all the afternoon till sap- 
per-time. 

After dark, he asked, " Must Susie stay 
there all night, if I don't?" "Yes," said 
Mrs. Stone. Tears started into Jack's eyes. 
He ran upstairs, and darting into the jail 
chamber he said : " Susie, you are the very 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 23 

best girl I ever knew. Susie, I'll never, never 
treat you so again. I'm sorry, — I am. I'll 
try to be a good boy, — I will. Susie, what 
makes you so good to me?" and he threw 
his arms round her neck, and cried as if his 
heart would break. Jack was drawn to 
Susie. And what was it that drew him? 
It was her love to him. She showed this 
love by her willingness to suffer for him. 

And it is just so with Jesus. He put himself 
in our place. He suffered for us. He died 
for us. And when we come to see how 
wonderful the love was which led him to 
do this for us, then we begin to feel the 
drawing power of Jesus. As the apostle 
says, it is " the love of Christ that constrains" 
or draws the hearts of people to him. 

And so in the first place the sun has a 
great drawing power, and for this reason 
Jesus is like it. 

But in the second place the sun has a great 
healing POWER, and in this, too, it represents 
Jesus. The prophet Malachi says he shall 

rise with healing in his wings " or beams. 



u 



24 THE SUN OF BIGHTEOUSKESS. 

During the night, while the sun is absent, 
the dew falls, and the mists gather and settle 
down. These make it damp, cold, and un- 
healthy. Agues and chills and many forms 
of sickness come from these causes. But 
when the sun arises, with his bright, warm 
beams, he dries up the dampness and drives 
away the mists, and by thus removing what 
would be sure to cause sickness it may well 
be said that he " rises with healing in his 
wings " 

In some countries on the coasts of the 
Mediterranean Sea, every morning, about 
sunrise, a fine fresh breeze sets in from the 
sea and blows across the land. It has such 
a good effect in scattering the mists and 
clouds that gather during the night, in driv- 
ing away disease, and in promoting the health 
of the people, that they call this morning 
breeze " the Doctor" And this breeze which 
the sun sets in motion may well be consid- 
ered as the wings of the sun. And so it is 
literally true in those places that " the sun 
arises with healing in his wings. " 



JESUS THE SUN OF EIGHTEOUSNESS. 25 

I was reading the other day some%extracts 
from the report of a physician connected with 
a hospital. He had a young girl under his 
care, who was suffering from consumption. 
At first, she was in a room where the bright, 
gladdening beams of the sun never shone. 
It was a damp, gloomy, cheerless room. And 
in spite of all that the doctor could do for 
her, he found that she w r as getting worse 
every day. At last, he ordered her room to 
be changed. She was removed to a bright, 
cheerful room, on which the sun shone for 
several hours a day. The doctor ordered her 
to sit in the sunbeams, and take a sun bath. 
She did so, and at once began to grow better. 
Thus it was true, in the case of that young 
girl, that " the sun arose upon her with 
healing in his wings" And so I suppose I 
may safely say that sunshine is good for 
consumption. Sunshine is good for nearly 
all diseases. I do not mean to say that sun- 
shine alone will cure disease. No ; but it is 
a great help to the physician in his blessed 
work of curing the sick. Suppose we should 



26 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

have no sunshine, all over the world for six 
months. What a dreadful effect it would 
have on the health of people generally ! The 
doctors would have their hands full of patients, 
and would find it very hard to make them 
well. The medicines given would not cure 
people, as they had formerly done. They 
would seem to have lost their healing power. 
And the difficulty would be not in the medi- 
cines, but in the want of the sunshine. The 
sun is indeed a great doctor. It is just as 
true as can be that he rises every day " with 
healing in his wings" 

And how beautifully the sun represents 
Jesus in this respect ! What healing power 
there is in him ! Sin is a dreadful spiritual 
disease. It prevails everywhere in our fallen 
world. And there is no power that can heal 
this disease, except what comes from Jesus, 
the Sun of Righteousness. The Bible is full 
of the beams of this blessed sun. And when 
we read of some sweet text of Scripture lead- 
ing a poor sin-sick soul to Jesus, and of that 
soul finding healing and life in him, then we 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 27 

see an illustration of what the prophet means 
when he speaks of " the Sun of Righteousness 
rising with healing in his win^s." Let me 

o o o 

give you one or two illustrations of the way 
in which this healing power of Jesus is often 
put forth. 

One day a missionary in India was walking 
along, not very far from the river Ganges. 
The Hindoos worship this river as a god. 
They think it the most blessed of all things 
to die on the banks of the Ganges, and within 
reach of its waters. When a person is sick, 
his friends, or the members of his family, will 
carry him to the brink of this river, and put 
an end to his illness and his life together, by 
stopping his mouth and nose with the mud of 
the river, and then leaving him on its bank, 
with his feet and limbs in the water of what 
they consider that sacred stream. The mis- 
sionary, of whom I am speaking, as he walked 
on, met a company of Hindoos. They were 
carrying a sick man to the Ganges, to leave 
him there to die, or to put him to death in 
the way just spoken of. But the man was 



28 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

unwilling to go. He struggled hard against 
it, and kept saying: "I don't want to go to 
the Ganges. I am not a heathen : I am a 
Christian. I won't have any Saviour but Je- 
sus." The missionary interfered, and stopped 
the men from carrying out their purpose. He 
had the sick man carried to the mission sta- 
tion, where he was nursed and taken care of. 

When the man got better, the missionary 
talked with him, and asked him how he came 
to be a Christian. He gave this account of 
himself : — 

" One day," said he, " a number of years 
ago, I heard a missionary preaching from the 
Bible. When he was done, I went up to 
him, and asked him to give me a copy of that 
book. He said he had none with him but 
the one out of which he was preaching, and 
that he could not part with it. I told him I 
must know something more about that book. 
Then he tore a blank leaf out of the book, 
and wrote one verse in it. He handed the 
leaf to me, and told me that, if I made a right 
use of it, that verse would lead me to heaven. 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 29 

These were the words of the verse : " God 
so loved the world, that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son, that ivhosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life" " This 
one verse," said the man, " led me to Jesus, 
and made me a Christian." How interesting 
this is ! That one verse was like a beam or 
ray from the Sun of Righteousness ; and oh ! 
there was healing in that beam. It brought 
health and salvation to the soul of that poor 
heathen. 

Here is another illustration of the healing 
power that goes forth from the beams of the 
Sun of Righteousness. 

In a town in one of our Western States, 
there was a Roman Catholic family, consisting 
of the father and mother, and a little girl 
named Mary, about seven years old. There 
was no Catholic Church within reach, so Mary 
was allowed to go to a Protestant Sunday 
school. 

The father of this family was taken sud- 
denly very sick. Thinking he was going to 
die, and knowing that he was not ready, he 



30 THE SUN OE RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

became very much troubled about his sins. 
One night he awoke, and was in such great 
distress that he begged his wife to pray for 
him. She said she had never prayed for her- 
self, and did not know how to pray. 

" Oh, what shall I do for my poor soul ? " 
cried the sick man. " Perhaps," said his wife, 
" our little Mary can pray, for she has been 
going to the Sunday school a good while." 

" Go and call her at once," he said. . 

Her mother w r ent upstairs to her room. 
Mary was fast asleep. She awoke her, 
wrapped a shawl round her, and carried her 
downstairs, and seated her on her father's 
bed. 

" Mary, my child, can you pray ? " asked 
her father, with great earnestness. " Oh, 
yes, father, I can," she said. " Will you 
kneel down and pray for your poor father? " 

"Yes, I will pray for you." So she kneeled 
down, and putting up her little hands she 
said : " Our Father, which art in heaven," — 
going through the Lord's prayer. Then she 
prayed in her own language. She asked God 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 31 

to have mercy on her father, to pardon his 
sins, and teach him to love Jesus, and to 
make him well a^ain for Jesus' sake. When 
she had finished, her father said : " Mary, 
will you read me some from the Bible?" 
" Yes, I will, father," she said. Then she 
got her Bible, and began to read the third 
chapter of St. John. She read on till she 
came to these words : " As Moses lifted up 
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must 
the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever 
belie veth on him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." When her father heard 
this, he said, " O Mary, is that there ? " 

" Yes, father, it is here ; and these are the 
very words that Jesus said." 

" Well, that is just what I want." 

" Yes, father ; but hear the rest of it. 
1 For God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believ- 
eth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life.' " 

" Oh, that is for me, for a poor sinner like 
me. ' Whosoever believeth in him.' I can 



32 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

believe in him ; I do believe in him." And 
from that night Mary's father became a. happy 
and useful Christian. Those texts that Mary 
read from the Bible were like beams from 
the Sun of Righteousness, and they brought 
healing to the soul of that poor man. The 
sun has a great healing power. And Jesus 
is like the sun in this respect. 

But, in the third place, the sun has a GREAT 
comforting power ; and for this reason, 
too, Jesus is like it. 

Solomon says : " Truly the light is sweet, 
and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold 
the sun" (Eccles. ii. 7). But we who see 
the sun every day hardly know how to value 
it. We cannot tell what a great blessing we 
have in his pleasant light, and what a comfort 
his bright beams are to us ! But if we were 
obliged to live for a while where we could 
have no sunshine, or even sunlight, then 
when we saw the light of the sun and his 
beautiful beams once more, we should under- 
stand what a comforting power the sun has. 

Up in the arctic region, near the North 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 33 

Pole, you know, there is a long night of six 
months every year, in which the sun is never 
seen. Our brave townsman, Dr. Kane, spent 
two winters there, some years ago. He went 
with his little band of heroes, in the hope of 
finding out something about the fate of Sir 
John Franklin and his noble company, who 
had perished there some years before. Well, 
if we had been six months without seeing the 
sun, as Dr. Kane was, we should then under- 
stand what a comforting thing it is to see the 
sun. I have just been looking at Dr. Kane's 
book to see what he says about his feelings 
on seeing the sun, after those long dark 
nights. 

On the first occasion, after the six dark 
months were over, when the doctor knew 
that the sun was coming back, he climbed 
up the peak of a mountain to catch the first 
view of his returning beams. " Then," he 
says, " I nestled in the sunshine. I felt as if 
I was bathing in perfumed water" Only 
think of taking a bath in cologne-water or 
rose-water ! What a comfortable feeling it 

3 



34 THE SUN OF KIGHTEOUSNESS. 

would give you ! That was just how Dr. 
Kane felt when he took his first sunshine 
bath, after he had been so long without 
seeing the sun. 

The next year, when he first saw the sun 
again, after the long winter, his feelings of 
gladness broke out in these words : " Blessed 
he the Great Author of light ! To-day I have 
once more looked upon the sun" Looking at 
the sun, he said, seemed like an act of wor- 
ship. It made that day seem like Sunday 
to him. Think of Dr. Kane, alone, on that 
mountain peak, with nothing but ice and 
snow around him, standing there to gaze 
once more upon the sun ! Ah ! he was feel- 
ing then, all through his soul, w T hat a great 
power to comfort the sun has. 

Some years ago, a good minister of Jesus 
was visiting among the poor in a city in 
Scotland. One day he stepped into a hovel. 
It was dimly lighted by a single window of 
four small panes of glass. There was very 
little furniture in it, but every thing was 
very neat and clean. An aged Christian 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 35 

woman lived in that humble dwelling. She 
was in very feeble health and almost blind. 
The minister saw her sitting in the corner, 
by the fire. He went and sat down by her, 
and began to talk with her. He found that, 
although she lived there alone, in much 
poverty and suffering, she was yet very 
happy. " How do you manage to spend 
your long days here, all alone ? " asked the 
minister. 

"I am not alone," she said, "because Je- 
sus is with me ; and thinking about him 
makes the time pass pleasantly. My neigh- 
bors are kind, and, when they come in to help 
me, I love to talk to them about Jesus. But 
there is one hour in the day which is the 
most pleasant of all to me. Do you see that 
little window?" she asked, pointing across 
the room. " For about an hour every day, 
when it is not cloudy, the sun shines in there. 
Then I take my large printed Bible, and sit 
down in the sunshine, where I can see well 
enough to read. And oh, sir, that is a blessed 
hour to me ! " 



36 THE SUN OF KIGHTEOUSNESS. 

What power the sun had to comfort that 
poor woman ! And when his bright light 
began to shine through that little window, it 
must have seemed as if an angel from heaven 
had come in there, and was shaking down 
blessings from his golden wings. And oh ! 
how many poor creatures there are all over 
the earth, who feel, when the bright sun 
comes pouring in his blessed light on them, 
that he has great power to comfort ! 

And Jesus is just like the sun in this re- 
spect. When we learn to love Jesus, hearing 
and reading, and thinking about him, has the 
same effect upon the soul that sunshine has 
on the body. It has power to gladden or to 
comfort. Let me give you one or two illus- 
trations of the way in which Jesus does this. 

A little boy was trying to amuse himself 
once in his mother's sick chamber. To do 
this without making a noise, he got a pencil 
and paper, and began printing his name. 
Presently he made a mistake ; and, wetting 
his finger, he tried to rub it out, as he used 
to do with his slate. His mother saw what 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 37 

he was doing. She called him to her, and 
said : " My son, you can't rub those marks 
out with your fingers. There is only one 
thing that will rub them out, and that is a 
piece of India rubber. But do you know that 
God writes down all you do in a book ? 
Every bad word and act, and thought and 
feeling, is written down there ; and do you 
think, my dear boy, you can ever rub out 
those marks against you ? " 

The little fellow had never thought of this 
before. His face grew red and then pale. 
He was very much distressed to think of 
those dreadful marks against him in God's 
book. He went away by himself for a while. 
Then he came back, and going up to his 
mother's bedside he said, " Dear mother, 
can't the blood of Jesus rub out the mark of 
my sins from God's book ? " 

" Yes, my dear child," said his mother. 
" That's the way, the only way in which our 
sins can be blotted out." Then the little 
fellow wiped away the tears that had filled 
his eyes, and felt happy. That sweet verse 



38 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

came to his mind like a beam of light from 
the Sun of Righteousness, and it had power 
to comfort him. 

I was reading lately about a man who had 
once been a member of the church, but who 
fell into sin, and gave up going to church. 
He even ceased to believe the Bible, and be- 
came an infidel. But at last he was taken 
sick, and felt that he was going to die. He 
thought of his sins, and was greatly alarmed. 
He was in such distress that it was fearful to 
see him. He trembled so that the bed on 
which he was lying fairly shook under him. 
They tried to get a minister to go and see 
him ; but there was not one in the neighbor- 
hood where he lived. It happened that a 
young man, who was a Christian, was on a 
visit to a family living near. He was asked 
to go and see the sick man. He went. He 
sat down by his bed-side. But, when he saw 
the great agony the poor man was in, he knew 
not what to say. He asked him what caused 
him so much distress. 

"My sins, — my sins," was his despairing 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 39 

cry. The young man was afraid to speak 
any words of his own : so he repeated a num- 
ber of passages of Scripture which came into 
his mind, and which he thought would suit 
the poor man's case. Among these texts was 
this : " This is a faithful saying, and worthy 
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners " (1 Tim. i. 15). 
The man caught at this text in a moment. 
It seemed to take right hold of his mind. 
" Repeat that text," he said to the young 
man. It was repeated. " Is that true ? " he 
asked. " It is," was the answer : " it is God's 
own truth, — the word of Him who cannot lie." 
" Then I am safe," said the sick man. The 
look of horror passed away from his face, 
and the smile of peace took its place. The 
change was effected in a moment. It was 
wonderful. It was like the voice of Jesus 
when he rebuked the stormy sea, " and the 
wind ceased, and immediately there was a 
great calm." It was like a sudden burst of 
sunshine coming into a dark room and fill- 
ing it with brightness. That one text of 



40 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Scripture was like a beam from the Sun of 
Righteousness, and there was great power to 
comfort in it. 

And thus we see that there are three 
reasons why Jesus is like the sun. These 
refer to the different kinds of power which 
the sun exercises, and in which Jesus resem- 
bles it. These are a great drawing power, 
a great healing power, and a great comforting 
power. 

Now, before closing, let me say to you, my 
dear young friends, that there are two things 
we ought to do with this light which comes 
to us from the Sun of Righteousness. One is 
this : we ought to use it ourselves. God gives 
us the light of day, in order that we may 
see how to do the work we have to do. And 
then he expects us to do it. And God gives 
us the light of the Sun of Righteousness to 
show us how to become Christians. And, 
when this light is shining about us, God ex- 
pects us to become Christians. And if we 
are really trying to love and serve Jesus, 
then we are using this light for ourselves. 



JESUS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 41 

This is just what Jesus means, when he says, 
" While ye have the light, walk in the light, 
that ye may be the children of the light." 

The other thing we ought to do with this 
light is to share it with others. There are 
many ways in which we may do this. One 
of these is by helping to send the gospel to 
those who are without it. When we help 
to establish Sunday schools where there are 
none ; when we give libraries and good books 
to poor schools ; and when we do what we 
can to send Bibles and missionaries to the 
heathen, then we are sharing our light with 
others. Let us do all we can in these ways, 
because Jesus loves to have us do these 
things; and because doing them will make 
us useful and happy. 



II. 

JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 



II. 

JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 

"I am the light of the world." — John viii. 12. 

We are speaking of " rays from the Sun 
of Righteousness." We have tried to show 
that Jesus is himself the Sun of Righteous- 
ness. It is proper to speak about a tree 
before speaking of the fruit that grow upon 
it. It is proper to speak about a fountain 
before speaking of the streams that flow from 
it. And so it is proper to speak about the 
sun before speaking of the rays that shine 
from it. All the light that comes to us from 
the sun is made up of the rays, or beams, 
which he is pouring forth continually. When 
this light is decomposed, or taken to pieces, 
it is found to be made up of seven different 
colored rays. There are blue, and red, and 
orange, and yellow, and so on. These rays 
differ from each other in other things as 
much as they do in color. The red ray has 



46 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

more heat in it than any of the others. The 
yellow is the coldest of all the rays ; and the 
violet is the quickest in its motion. And, if 
we wish to have a proper understanding of 
the light which comes from the sun, we must 
find out all we can about the different rays 
that make up this light. 

And so if we would have aright knowledge 
of Jesus, if we would understand what a 
glorious Saviour he is, we must study the 
different rays that shine from him as the Sun 
of Righteousness. These rays are the names, 
or titles, given to Jesus in the Bible. And 
this is what we shall try to do in these 
sermons. We shall take up different parts 
of the character of Jesus, and the work that 
he does for his people, and talk about them. 
And, when we get through, I hope we shall 
find that we understand more about Jesus as 
the Saviour of our souls, and as our friend 
and brother, than we have ever known before. 

" I am the light of the world." 

This was what Jesus said of himself. When 
he spoke these words, it was early in the 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 47 

morning. He had just come from the Mount 
of Olives. As he approached the temple, 
it may have been that the sun burst out, and 
poured a flood of light over all that beautiful 
building. Its marble walls and golden spires 
were glittering in the beams of the sun. 
And, as the disciples were gazing in wonder 
at the beautiful sight, Jesus pointed to that 
sun as an image, or figure, of himself. It 
was just as if he had said, " Look at that sun 
with the light it pours out, and then look at 
me. I am the light of the world. All that 
the light of yonder sun is doing for the 
bodies of men, I have come to do for their 
souls." 

And, in comparing Jesus to the light, I wish 
to speak of four things for which we are 
dependent on the light. These four things 
show us how necessary the light is to us, 
and how well Jesus may be compared to it, 
because we are dependent on him for the 
very same things for our souls. 

And the first thing for which we are de- 
pendent on the light is — life. 



48 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

The light of the sun has no power to make 
dead things alive by shining upon them. 
Suppose we take the dead body of a child, 
or of a man or woman ; or suppose we take 
a dead plant or flower or tree, and lay it 
down where the light of the sun can shine 
on it : will this bring it back to life again ? 
No. The light has no power to do that. 
It cannot give life when it does not exist; 
but it can help to preserve it, or keep it 
where it does exist. The light of the sun is 
needed in order to keep alive the grass and 
the plants, the flowers and the trees. And 
it is needed, too, to keep our bodies, and the 
bodies of all the animals, alive. If the light 
were taken away, all the trees of the forest 
would die. So would all the plants and 
flowers of the garden, and all the grass of 
the fields. All the animals in the world, 
and all the people too, would die, if it were 
not for the light. Light is necessary to 
preserve the life of our bodies, and the life 
of all things about us. 

And for this reason Jesus might well say 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 49 

of himself: "I am the light of the world." 
He is more necessary for the life of our souls, 
than the light of the sun is for the life of 
our bodies. The light which shines from 
Jesus, and of which he speaks in our text, 
is made up of the truths taught us in the 
Bible about his character and work ; or 
about what he is in himself, and what he 
does for us. And this light is more important 
to our souls than the light of the sun is to 
our bodies. The light which shines from 
Jesus has the power of giving life to souls 
that are dead, as well as of keeping it when 
it is given. 

When ministers preach the gospel, or when 
Christian people read it or teach it to others, 
they are scattering light from Jesus, the Sun 
of Righteousness. And the light thus scat- 
tered has the power of giving life to souls 
that are dead in sins. A single ray of this 
light sometimes gives life, when it seemed 
impossible to give it. Let us look at some 
illustrations of the way in which this is done. 

In a certain part of England, there is a vil- 

4 



50 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

lage called Adwinkle. Many years ago, the 
Rev. Thomas Hawes, an earnest man of 
God, was the minister of the church in this 
village. At the time to which our story re- 
fers, the members of Mr. Hawes's church 
had a new organ built, so that they might 
have better music in connection with their 
worship. The organ was finished ; and, on a 
particular Sunday, it was to be used for the 
first time. The choir had been practising a 
long time for that occasion. They had some 
beautiful pieces to sing, and there was to be 
a grand musical performance. The whole 
village was excited about it ; and people who 
were not in the habit of going to church 
were going on that day to hear the new 
organ. 

There was a man living in Adwinkle then, 
who kept the village inn, or tavern. He was 
a rough, drunken, swearing, wicked man. 
Of course he never went to church. He pro- 
fessed to be an infidel, and never read the 
Bible. But he was very fond of music. He 
wanted very much to go to church, and hear 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 51 

the new organ. But he was not willing to 
listen to the minister while praying, or read- 
ing the Bible, or preaching, even for the pleas- 
ure of hearing the new organ. What could he 
do ? After thinking over it a good while, he 
made up his mind that he would go to church, 
and hear the organ ; and, as soon as the 
music was over, would stop up his ears with 
his fingers, so as not to hear any of the ser- 
vice. He went accordingly. He heard the 
voluntary and the opening piece played. 
Then he stopped his ears while the minister 
was praying. He listened to the hymn after 
the prayer, and stopped his ears again while 
the minister was reading the Scriptures. 
But just in the midst of this part of the ser- 
vice, there came a fly, and lighted on his big 
red nose. He put out his under lip, and 
tried to send up a blast of air that would 
blow him off. But the fly held on. Then 
he shook his head again and again. The fly 
took no notice of it. He went deliberately 
crawling about over the drunkard's blossom- 
ing nose, and tickled him more than he could 



52 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

bear. At last he removed his right hand 
from his ear, for a moment, to drive the fly- 
away. While doing this, he heard the min- 
ister read these words : " He that hath ears to 
hear, let him hear" They had such an effect 
upon him, that he went home, and began 
earnestly to read his Bible ; and, in a short 
time, he became a Christian. 

Here you see how that one text was like 
a ray from the Sun of Righteousness. It 
brought the light of truth into that man's 
darkened mind. And that light was the life 
of his soul. 

" One day," said a minister in England, 
" I was walking out near an encampment of 
gypsies. I went in among them. While 
buying some of the baskets they were mak- 
ing, I heard that there was a sick boy in their 
camp. I begged that I might be allowed to 
go and see him. The father asked : — 

" 4 Do you want to talk about religion to 
him?' 

"'No.' 

"'What then?' 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 53 

" ' Only about Jesus.' 

" ' Well, then, you may go ; but mind, if 
you talk about religion, I'll set the dog on 
you.' 

" In one of the tents I found the lad alone. 
He was sick with consumption, and very near 
his end. His eyes were closed, and he looked 
like one already dead. Very slowly in his 
ears I repeated this one text of Scripture : 
1 God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life.' I repeated this over five times. He 
seemed to take no notice. I could not tell 
that he even heard me. I repeated it the 
sixth time. Then he opened his eyes, and 
smiled. In a low whisper he said : — 

" c And I never thanked him ; but nobody 
never told me. I 'turn him many thanks, — 
only a poor gypsy chap ! I see, I see ! I 
thank him kindly.' " 

The minister's heart was full as he kneeled 
down to offer a prayer over the poor boy. 
He saw his lips move again. He leaned 



54 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

down to listen. He caught, — " That's it." 
There were other words, but he could not 
understand. 

On calling the next day, he found the poor 
boy was gone. His father said he had been 
very " peaceable," and had " a nice tidy 
death." 

Now when that minister was repeating, 
again and again, the words of that sweet text 
to the poor gypsy boy, telling him " the old, 
old story," and telling it to him " simply * 
and " slowly," " that he might take it in," he 
was holding a beam from " the light of the 
world," a ray from the Sun of Righteousness, 
and pouring it on the darkness of a poor 
dying soul. And that one ray of light 
brought life to that soul. Jesus may well be 
called " the light of the world," because we 
are dependent on this light for life. 

But we are dependent on light for GROWTH, 
as well as life, and this is the second reason 
why Jesus may he compared to the light. 

All the growth that takes place in plants 
and trees depends on the light. If the light 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WOULD. 55 

were taken away from them, and they were 
kept in the dark, they would not grow. We 
may find an illustration of this in most of our 
cellars. Suppose you have a lot of potatoes 
in your cellar. If there is no window in the 
cellar, and no light gets in, the potatoes, if 
left there long enough, will rot and spoil; 
but they will not grow. But, if there is a 
window on the other side of the cellar, and 
a little light finds its way in there, it will 
have a strange effect upon those potatoes. 
Instead of rotting, they will begin to grow. 
Their eyes will swell up, and little sprouts 
will shoot out from them. These sprouts will 
grow over towards the window. As you see 
them straggling across the cellar floor, it looks 
as if the potatoes were stretching out their 
arms towards the light, and begging it to 
come and help them to grow. And that is 
just what the potatoes want. They wish to 
get more light to help them grow. 

And it is the same with the flowers and 
the trees, and with every other kind of 
vegetable. Each, in its place, is dependent 



56 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

on the light. None of them can grow with- 
out it. Here is an acorn. What a tiny- 
little thing it is ! Yet there is a big oak-tree 
stowed away in this little cup. But, then, 
that tree can never get out of the acorn and 
grow up to its proper size without the help 
of the sunlight. It needs the light to make 
it begin to grow. Then it springs up a ten- 
der little sprouting thing, which an infant's 
foot could crush. But every year it grows 
higher and broader and stronger. And, as 
it goes on increasing in size and strength, 
the trunk depends on the branches, and the 
branches depend on the leaves, and the leaves 
depend on the sunlight for all they need to 
make the tree grow. 

And just in the same way our souls depend 
for their growth on the light that Jesus gives. 
A young Christian, just converted, is like an 
acorn just beginning to grow. A mature 
Christian, who has reached what the Apostle 
Paul calls " the stature of a perfect man in 
Christ," is like the tree that has grown up to 
its full size out of the little acorn. The tree 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WOULD. 57 

can only grow by the help of the light which 
the sun gives, and the soul can only grow by 
the help of the light which Jesus gives. And 
this is one reason why Jesus says of himself, 
" 1 am the light of the world." 

Here is a story about a beggar boy who 
was changed into a Christian gentleman. 
When he was a beggar boy, he was like the 
acorn that had the oak-tree hid away inside 
of it. When he became a Christian gentle- 
man, he was like the great oak-tree that had 
grown up out of its acorn. And it was the 
light which Jesus gives that made this oak- 
tree of a Christian gentleman grow out of 
that acorn of a beggar boy. 

A New York merchant, who is a Sunday- 
school teacher, was called upon for a speech 
at a great Sunday-school meeting out in the 
West. He said : " I'll tell you a little story 
of a beggar boy. I started out one fine Sun- 
day morning to get up some recruits for my 
class. At the corner of the street, I met a 
barefooted boy, without hat or coat. His 
hair was fiery red, and looked as if it had 



58 THE SUN OF BIGHTEOUSNESS. 

never been combed. I asked the boy if he 
would come to school. ' No, sir ! ' was his 
sharp reply. 

" ; You ought to go to Sunday school,' I 
said kindly. 

" ' What for ? ' he asked. 

" ' We teach boys to be good,' I said. 

" ' But I don't want to be good,' he said. 

" ' Why not want to be good ? ' I asked 
earnestly. 

" ' Because I am hungry,' was his quick 
reply. 

" ; It is now nine o'clock,' I said, looking 
at my watch ; ' haven't you had any break- 
fast yet ? ' 

"'No, sir.' 

" ' Where do you live ? ' 

" ' Up the alley there, with aunty ; she's 
sick.' 

" ' Will you eat some gingerbread and 
crackers, if I go and get some ? ' 

" i Yes, sir, that I will, and be glad to get 
'em.' 

" I bought a lot, and set them before him. 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 59 

He ate them in a way which showed how 
keenly hungry he was. I asked him if he 
would like some more. * A little more, if 
you please, sir,' said the boy. 

" I got a fresh supply, and set them before 
him. I waited till he had done eating ; then 
I said, 4 My boy, will you go with me to 
school now ? ' 

" ' You've been so kind to me, sir,' said he, 
' I'll go anywhere with you. Please wait till 
I take what's left of the gingerbread round 
to aunty, and then I'll go with you.' 

" He returned directly to the sidewalk 
where I was waiting for him, and went with 
me to school. 

" He had never been to school before. He 
thought of school as a place where boys had 
to hold out their hands to be slapped with a 
ruler, and have their hair pulled, and their 
ears pinched. But when he found himself in 
the hands of a pleasant-looking young lady, 
who treated him kindly, and said nothing 
about his shabby clothes, he was greatly sur- 
prised. 



60 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" He became a regular attendant. He told 
all the boys of his acquaintance about the 
school, and persuaded many of them to at- 
tend. About two years after this, a lot of 
boys from New York were sent out West, and 
distributed among the farmers. My red- 
haired boy was sent among them. I used to 
hear of him for a while, that he was getting 
on and doing well. I have lost sight of him 
for years now, but I have no doubt he is 
doing good wherever he is." The gentleman 
then said a few words about the importance 
of getting the poor and neglected children of 
our large cities into Sunday school, and then 
sat down. 

In a moment, a tall, good-looking gentle- 
man, with red hair, stood up in the meeting, 
and said : " Ladies and gentlemen, I am the 
red-haired beggar boy of New York, who ate 
that gentleman's gingerbread. I have lived 
in the West for years, and been prospered. 
I am now a rich man. I own five hundred 
acres of as good land as the sun shines on. 
My horses and carriage are at the door ; and, 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 61 

when the meeting is over, I shall be happy 
to take my old friend to my home, where he 
will be welcome to stay as long as he pleases. 
I am a member of a church, and the superin- 
tendent of a Sabbath school ; and I owe all 
that I have in this world, and all that I hope 
for in the next, to what was taught me about 
Jesus in the Sabbath school ! " 

Now the growth of a great oak-tree from 
a little acorn is not at all more wonderful 
than the change which took place when 
that little, hungry, ignorant beggar boy was 
turned into that intelligent Christian gentle- 
man. And yet it was all brought about by 
the light which Jesus gives. 

The second thing for which we are depen- 
dent on light is growth ; and this is a good 
reason why Jesus may be compared to light. 

But the third thing for which we are depen- 
dent on light is — BEAUTY. 

Light is one of the most beautiful things 
that God has made. It is beautiful in itself, 
and it makes other things beautiful. All the 
beauty that we see in the world around us 



62 THE SUN OF EIGHTEOUSNESS. 

we owe to the light. Suppose you go into 
a garden full of beautiful flowers on a dark 
night. How many colors will you see among 
all the flowers ? Only one. And what color 
will that be ? Black. Suppose you go and 
look at a gallery of beautiful paintings in the 
dark. How many colors will you see ? Only 
one. And that will be what ? Black. You 
must have light to bring out to view all the 
different colors of the flowers in the garden, 
or the pictures in the gallery. Suppose you 
look at a great mass of clouds in the western 
sky at the close of the afternoon. They are 
all of one color ; and this is a dark gray, al- 
most black. There is very little beauty in 
those clouds. When you have seen them 
once, you do not care to see them again. 
But presently the sun gets behind them. He 
pours a flood of light over them and through 
them ; and what a change takes place in a 
moment ! They look now as if they had 
been bathed in liquid gold. How they glow 
and sparkle ! What different colors are there ! 
There is white, and gray, and yellow, and 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 63 

blue, and purple. They are changing all the 
while, and mingling one with another. How 
beautiful they are ! And what has made this 
change ? The light has done it. All those 
beautiful colors are made by the light. 

And Jesus may well be called " the light 
of the world" on this account. Like the 
light, he is beautiful in himself, and he 
makes others beautiful. Jesus is a glorious 
sun, — "the Sun of Righteousness." And 
the light that he gives comes to us like sun- 
beams, that spread brightness and beauty 
everywhere. 

And the most interesting thing about this 
light is that it has the power of making us 
beautiful, if we use it properly. We some- 
times hear of persons putting powder and 
paint on their faces, to make them look beau- 
tiful. But if we use the light which Jesus 
gives, that is, if we become true Christians, 
and try to be like Jesus, this will make us 
more beautiful than any thing else. You 
know that a sculptor is one whose business it 
is to make statues, or figures of men in mar- 



64 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

ble. He will set before him a beautiful model 
of the head and face of a man, and then try 
to make one like it. He will take a block of 
marble, and hew it out into the shape of a 
man. At first, it will be rough, and not 
much like the model. But with his chisel in 
one hand, and his mallet in the other, he 
keeps working away at it. It cannot be 
done at once, but requires great patience and 
perseverance. He chips off a little piece 
here, and a little piece there. Now he does 
something to the chin, and now to the cheek, 
and now to the nose, and now to the lips. 
He goes over it again and again. He looks 
first at the model, and then at his own work, 
and tries to make this just like that. And 
every Christian is a kind of sculptor ; only, 
instead of working in marble, he is working 
in mind or spirit. He sets Jesus before him 
as his model, and tries to make his own soul 
like that of Jesus. And when we look to 
Jesus, and ask ourselves what would he do, 
or say, or think, if he were in our place ? and 
then try to do, or think, or feel, or say, just 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WOULD. 65 

as he would, why, then, we are growing like 
Jesus. And there is nothing in the world 
that will make us look so beautiful as this. 
We sometimes see persons who were beauti- 
ful when young, but who become ugly as 
they grow older. But if we are growing like 
Jesus, and the light he gives is making us 
beautiful, then the longer we live, and the 
older we get, the more beautiful we shall 
grow. 

There is living in the town of New Hart- 
ford, in Connecticut, in a small, unpainted 
house by the roadside, about two miles from 
the village, a poor woman by the name of 
Chloe Lankton. She is confined to her bed 
with a disease that never can be cured in this 
life. For more than thirty years she has lain 
on that humble bed, unable to rise or be 
removed. She is in constant bodily pain. 
At times her sufferings are so great that it is 
wonderful how she can live. Her father and 
mother and four sisters have died, one after 
another, and been carried from her sight, 
since she has lain on that bed. She has no 

6 



66 THE SUN OF EIGHTEOUSNESS. 

relative in the world, and no support but 
what friends give without being asked. She 
has no one to wait on her but a hired servant. 
Yet the light which Jesus gives has so shined 
into the heart of that lonely sufferer as to 
make her look really beautiful. Her face is 
said to beam almost like the face of an angel. 
Those who go to see her come away charmed, 
as if they had been to visit a princess. Young 
people, for miles around, go to see her ; not 
from pity, but for the pleasure they find in 
her company. The very children go in troops 
to her house to show her all their treasures, 
and ask her advice about all their plans and 
playthings. And what has given this poor 
lonely sufferer such power to please and 
charm both old and young ? Nothing but 
the light which Jesus gives. This shines 
into her heart. It makes her gentle and lov- 
ing and kind as he is. It gives to her voice 
and face and manner a sweetness and beauty 
that cause all who know her to love her. 
The light gives beauty, and for this reason 
Jesus may be compared to the light. 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 67 

But there is a fourth thing for which ive are 
dependent on the light ; viz., SAFETY. And, 
on this account, Jesus may be compared to 
the light. 

There is danger in darkness. We cannot 
see the evils that threaten us then, nor how 
to escape them. It is under the cover of 
darkness that thieves go forth to rob, and 
murderers to kill, and all sorts of wicked 
people to do bad things. And it was the 
knowledge he had of this which led our Sav- 
iour to say: " He that doeth evil hateth the 
light, neither cometh to the light, lest his 
deeds should be reproved " (John iii. 20). 
Our merchants and store-keepers have found 
out that there is safety in light ; and they are 
putting this knowledge to a good use. 

When I was a boy, I remember that at 
night the jewellers' stores, and others that 
had valuable things in them, used to have 
heavy wooden or iron shutters to the win- 
dows ; and these would be fastened with 
locks, or great iron bolts and bars. And all 
this was done for safety. But now many of 



68 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

those stores have no shutters at all to them ; 
and others only have a thin wire grating over 
them. But, if you stop and look through one 
of those windows at night, you will find that 
the gas is lighted in the store, and kept burn- 
ing. If a thief should get in there and begin 
to steal, he would be seen by the watchman, 
or the people going by. And so the thieves 
stay away. They are afraid to go into a 
store where the gas is burning. This shows 
us that there is safety in light. 

And Jesus may well be called " the light 
of the world," because he brings salvation 
wherever he comes. And salvation means 
safety. When we learn to know him, and 
trust in him, we are safe. Solomon says: 
" The name of the Lord is a strong tower ; 
the righteous runneth into it, and is safe " 
(Prov. xviii. 10). And when David is 
speaking of the way in which God takes care 
of his people, he says: "He shall defend 
thee under his wings, and thou shalt be safe 
under his feathers ; his faithfulness and truth 
shall be thy shield and buckler " (Ps. xci. 4, 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 69 

Prayer-book version). Here God compares 
himself to a bird that takes its little ones 
under its wings for safety. This is what 
Jesus said he wanted to do for the Jews, and 
they would not let him (Matt, xxiii. 37). 
But he does this for all who love him. 
When we learn to know him and trust him, 
it is just as if a beam of Hght had shined 
down on our path to show us the way to a 
safe hiding-place. 

Not long ago, a train of cars was going over 
the Alleghany Mountains. It had reached a 
place where there was a deep precipice on 
one side, and a steep wall of solid rock that 
rose sheer up to a great height on the other. 
The cars were running along quite close to 
this rocky wall. All at once the whistle 
screamed the signal, " down brakes ! down 
brakes ! " 

The passengers were alarmed. They raised 
the windows and looked out, expecting to see 
or hear of some dreadful disaster. The en- 
gineer had discovered a little girl and her 
baby brother playing upon the track, just a 



70 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

little way in front of the engine. It was im- 
possible to stop the train in time ; and it 
seemed as if the poor children must be 
crushed to death. But, just at this moment, 
the girl's eye caught sight of two niches in 
the wall of rock, made by blasting. Snatch- 
ing up her little brother, she pressed him into 
one of these niches, and put herself in the 
other. And while the long train went thun- 
dering by, the passengers heard the gentle 
voice of the little girl saying : " Cling close 
to the rock, Johnny ! cling close to the 
rock ! " 

How beautiful this was ! And it shows us 
how Jesus makes his people safe. We are 
exposed to dangers worse than those which 
threatened this little girl. But Jesus sheds 
the light of his truth on our path. This 
shows us that he is the Rock in which we 
may find a hiding-place. And when we look 
up to him and say : — 

" Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee," 

then, like this little girl, we are " clinging 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 71 

close to the rock." And the safety which we 
find in doing this is safety found in the light 
which Jesus gives. 

I remember hearing of a tree somewhere 
in the East Indies, which illustrates very 
sweetly this part of our subject. This tree 
is what is called a non-conductor of lightning. 
This means that the tree has some strange 
power in it, which prevents the lightning 
from striking it. They have dreadful thun- 
der storms in that country. And when those 
storms burst, the thunder roars, and the 
lightning flashes out, and strikes other trees 
in the neighborhood; but it never touches 
this tree. 

The people in the neighborhood know this. 
And when they see the storm gathering, they 
leave their houses, and get under the shelter 
of this tree for safety. And they always find 
it there. No matter how loud the thunder 
or how sharp the lightning, they are safe 
under that tree. The lightning never strikes 
that tree ; and nobody under the shadow of 
it is ever hurt. 



72 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

What a beautiful illustration this is of the 
tree of Calvary, the cross on which Jesus died 
for us ! The Bible tells us of " the wrath to 
come." This will be the storm of God's 
anger against sinners. It will be dreadful 
when that storm bursts. But the lightning 
of God's wrath will never strike the Tree of 
Calvary, — the cross on which Jesus died. 
All who are under the shadow of this tree 
will be safe. Jesus sheds the light of his 
gospel around us, in order to show us the way 
to this tree. And Jesus may well be called 
" the light of the world," because there is 
safety in the light he gives. 

And so we see there are four things for 
which we are dependent on the light. 

These are life, and growth, and beauty, and 
safety. And, as the light of the natural sun 
brings these four blessings to our bodies, so 
the light which Jesus, the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, gives, secures the same sort of blessings 
to our souls. 

Let us be thankful that we have this light. 
" And while we have the light, let us walk 



JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 73 

in the light, that we maj^ be children of the 
light." I pray God that each of you, my 
dear young friends, may be able to say, as 
Bonar says in one of his sweet hymns : — 

" I heard the voice of Jesus say, 

I am this dark world's light ; 
Look unto me ; thy morn shall rise, 

And all thy day be bright. 
I came to Jesus, and I found 

In him my Star, my Sun ; 
And in that light of life 111 walk 

Till travelling days are done." 

" I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD." 



III. 

THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 



III. 

THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 

" / am the bright and morning star" — Revelations xxii. 16. 

This is one of the beautiful titles which 
Jesus applies to himself. And among them 
all there is none more delightful than this. 
We have already spoken of him as " the Sun 
of Righteousness," and as " the light of the 
world." And now the star comes in very 
sweetly, as another of those bright and beau- 
tiful things that remind us of our blessed 
Saviour, whenever we see them. We may 
well consider this as one of the " rays from 
the Sun of Righteousness" 

Jesus was often spoken of as a star before 
he came into our world. And when he was 
born, we remember that wonderful star which 
appeared to " the wise men in the east," to 
tell them that the great king of the Jews had 



78 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

come ; and afterwards to guide them to the 
stable in Bethlehem, where Jesus lay. 

All the stars are very beautiful to look at. 
But if we get up before daylight, in the 
morning, and look out towards the east, 
where " the bright and morning star " is 
shining, we shall see that this is more beauti- 
ful than the others. How clearly it stands 
out in the dark sky ! With what soft and 
silvery light it shines! And, as we stand 
gazing at it, we cannot help thinking how 
well it may remind us of Jesus. He said 
of himself, "I am the bright and morning 
star." 

Jesus made use of a great many objects 
in the world around us, in order to teach us 
what he is, and what he does for us. The 
vine, the rock, the tree, the fountain, the 
sun, the light, the star, are all used in this 
way, either by himself or by the " holy men 
of old" whom he employed to write the 
Bible. And, when he does this, it is worth 
our while to study these different objects ; for, 
if we do so, we shall always find something 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 79 

in each of them that will help us to under- 
stand the character of Jesus and his work. 
Now our subject is " the bright and morning 
star." 

And the question for us to consider is 
this : when we think of this beautiful star, 
what is there in it, or in what it does, that 
should remind us of Jesus, and show us how 
well he may be compared to such a star ? 
There are three things which the star gives 
us, and for which Jesus may well be com- 
pared to it. 

In the first place, the star gives us guid- 
ance. 

Our sailors understand this better than 
any other people. When they are out at 
sea, far away from land, the stars, as they 
shine calmly out in the sky at night, are a 
great help to them in steering their vessels. 
Most of the stars are changing their places 
all the time. These are not of so much use. 
But there is one star, especially, that is fixed. 
It never changes its place. In winter and in 
summer, it is always in just the same spot in 



80 TELE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

the heavens. It will be there to-night. It 
was there when our Saviour was on earth, 
almost two thousand years ago. And a thou- 
sand years before that, when David, the shep- 
herd of Bethlehem, used to watch the stars as 
he kept guard over his flocks by night, that 
star was just in the same place where we can 
see it now. But this star, the North Star, or 
the Pole Star, as we call it, is not a very 
bright star. It can only be seen when the 
sky is clear. And so, to help the sailor find 
out about where this Pole Star is, when he 
cannot see it, God has put two very bright 
stars in the sky, not far from the Pole Star. 
These two stars belong to a group of stars 
known as The Great Bear. Get some one to 
show them to you, and then you will always 
know them. They can be seen every clear 
night. Two of the stars in this group are 
called " the pointers" because a line drawn 
through them and continued on will touch 
the North Star. Thus they seem all the while 
to be pointing to it. And so, if the sailor 
cannot see the North Star itself, yet, when 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 81 

he sees these pointers, he knows just where 
to look for the North Star. And when he 
knows where that star is, it gives him guid- 
ance. He knows then how to steer his ves- 
sel, in order to reach the port for which he is 
sailing. 

Now this life is like an ocean ; and we 
are all like ships, sailing across the ocean. 
We are out of sight of land. We cannot see 
that heavenly harbor which we desire to reach 
at last. And there is nothing that we need 
so much as guidance. We know not how to 
steer our vessel so as to be able to reach that 
blessed harbor. And one reason why Jesus 
is called " the bright and morning star " is 
because he shows us the way to heaven, and 
guides us in that way. 

There are rocks and shoals in the sailor's 
way, and he needs guidance to enable him 
to steer clear of them, and keep from being 
wrecked. And, in trying to make our way 
to heaven, the sins and temptations around 
us are the rocks and shoals we meet with ; 
and if we look to Jesus, as our star, he will 

6 



82 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

guide us, so that we can steer clear of these 
dangers. It is mainly through the Bible that 
Jesus, our bright and morning star, gives us 
the guidance that we need. If we read it 
carefully and follow its teachings, it will help 
us to escape a great many dangers, and keep 
us safe from a great many troubles. 

I saw a good story lately, that was headed 
How to escape the Trap. 

It is a sort of fable. The story says that 
a company of rats once met in the cellar of a 
house, to consult together about their safety. 
A large steel trap had been set in that 
cellar. It was baited with a good big piece 
of cheese, which smelled very nice, and which 
they wanted very much to get at. But they 
had seen a number of their friends killed and 
wounded by this trap. In this way, they had 
learned that it was a dangerous thing to med- 
dle with. And now they had met together 
to see if they could not find out some way of 
getting that nice cheese out of the trap, with- 
out any injury to themselves. Many long 
speeches were made, and many plans sug- 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 83 

gested ; but none of them seemed to answer. 
At last one of them got up, and said : " I 
move that a committee of two of the strong- 
est among us be appointed to attend to this 
business. And I think if one of the commit- 
tee will put his paws upon the spring and 
keep it down, then the other can take away 
the cheese with safety." This seemed to 
meet with great favor. They agreed that 
this was the best plan that had been sug- 
gested, and they uttered a loud squeal in 
favor of it. 

But just then they were startled by a faint 
voice, and a poor lame rat, with only three 
legs, came limping into the meeting. He 
stood up to speak, and said : " My friends, I 
have tried the plan that has just been pro- 
posed, and you see the result. I lost my leg 
by it. That is what it cost me. Now let 
me give you my advice. If you want to 
escape the dangers of that trap, the best way 
is to let it alone. Dont touch it. DonH go 
near it" 

And this is one of the ways in which Jesus, 



84 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. . 

our guiding star, keeps us out of danger. 
Every sin is like a trap. We cannot go near 
it without danger. And the advice which 
Jesus gives us, when we are tempted to any- 
kind of sin, is always the same. He says: 
" Let it alone. Flee from it. Have nothing 
to do with it." The best way to escape the 
trap is not to go near it. 

And then this " bright and morning star " 
shines upon us, to show us how we may find 
peace and safety for our souls, as well as to 
avoid the traps which Satan sets for us. 
Some years ago, there was a young man in 
England, who was studying for the ministry, 
and who died before he got through with his 
studies. He wrote, however, a very sweet 
hymn about Jesus as " The Star of Bethle- 
hem." He compared himself to a vessel at 
sea, in the midst of a dark and stormy night. 
He knew there was a harbor near, but he 
could not tell how to steer his way into it. 
The wind was tossing his vessel about. The 
waves were breaking over it ; and it was just 
on the point of sinking. 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 85 

"When suddenly a star appeared, 
It was the star of Bethlehem." 

And then he goes on in that sweet hymn 
to tell what that star did for him. He says : 

" It was my guide, my light, my all ; 
It bade my dark forebodings cease ; 
And through the storm and danger's thrall, 
It led me to the port of peace." 

And then he tells of the happiness that 
came to him from following the guidance of 
this blessed star, comparing his soul to a 
vessel that was safely anchored in a quiet 
harbor. 

" Now safely moored, my perils o'er, 
I'll sing, first on night's diadem, 
For ever and for ever more 

The star — the star of Bethlehem." 

And what this beautiful star did for Henry 
Kirke White — this was the young man's 
name — it has done for multitudes besides. 
And it will do the same for you and me, if 
we follow it. It will " guide our feet into 
the way of peace." It will bring us to Jesus 
himself. It will teach us to know him and 
love him and trust in him. And when we 



86 THE SUN" OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

learn to trust in him, we shall find pardon 
and salvation and every blessing that we need 
in him. 

Jesus says : " I am the bright and morning 
star." The star gives guidance, and this is 
the first reason why Jesus may well be com- 
pared to a star. 

But the second thing which a star gives is 
hope. And this is another good reason why 
Jesus may be compared to a star. Jesus 
calls himself " the bright and morning star," 
because that star is made to shine on purpose 
to give us hope. The morning star is very 
beautiful to look at. It does not give a great 
deal of light. You cannot see to read by that 
star. But, as you look at it, it tells you that 
the night is almost gone. You know that the 
sun will soon rise and shine, and then there will 
be light enough for every thing. You will 
be able to see the 'fields and the woods and 
the beautiful flowers, and all the glorious 
things that God has made. That morning 
star gives us the hope that the darkness will 
soon be gone, and the light of day be shining 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 87 

all about us. And Jesus may well be com- 
pared to such a star, because when he rises 
and shines on our hearts he fills them with 
the sweet hope that the darkness of this 
world will soon pass away, and the bright, 
clear light of heaven will be shining around 
us. And this hope is a bright and beautiful 
thing. It is able to make us happy, when 
nothing else in the world can do so. Let me 
try to show you what a blessed thing this 
hope is, which Jesus gives to those who know 
and love him. 

LIGHT IN A MINE. 

There was a little boy in England named 
Willie, whose parents were miners. They 
lived in a little cottage, near the entrance of 
the mine; but their young son had to stay 
down in the damp, dark mine all the week. 
The only time when he came up out of the 
mine was Saturday night. He always spent 
Sunday at home. That was a bright and 
happy day to him. Then he could see the 
green fields, and the trees, and the flowers 



88 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

and the beautiful sky, and bask in the bright 
beams of the glorious sun. How he enjoyed 
those Sundays ! Every thing seemed pleas- 
ant to him ; but the Sunday school, to which 
he always went, was the pleasantest of all. 
There he had learned to know Jesus as " the 
bright and morning star;" and we shall see 
directly what a blessed hope this star gave 
him. 

One day, while the miners were blasting, 
a stream of water burst out. Pretty soon it 
began to fill up the passage-way where they 
were working. They all fled for life to the 
main shaft, or opening of the mine. Among 
those who met here were the father and 
mother of Willie, for they both worked in 
the mine. They looked round for their little 
boy; but he was not there. They called 
him : " Willie ! O Willie ! " but there was 
no answer. He worked in a little chamber 
in a far-off part of the mine. His mother 
started to run for him. But the narrow pas- 
sage-way was already filled with water. No- 
body could get through it. She found it was 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAB. 89 

impossible to reach her child. They were 
obliged to go up, and leave their little boy 
behind, separated from them by that flood of 
cold, dark water. Oh, how hard this was ! 
But there was no help for it. Nobody could 
get at poor Willie, in that dark and distant 
corner of the mine, where he was shut up. 

The great steam pump was immediately 
set at work to try and get out the water. 
It was kept going night and day; but it 
took several days before the water was low 
enough to allow any one to enter the mine. 
Willie's father was the first to enter. He 
knew where to look for his boy. With a 
miner's lamp in his hand, he waded through 
the passage which was still half full of water. 
Presently he came to the chamber where 
Willie used to work. Here he held up his 
lamp and looked round : over there, stretched 
out on an upper ledge of the coal, lay the 
body of poor Willie, cold and dead. He had 
not been drowned, but had crept up there 
out of the reach of the water, and had died 
a slow and lingering death from the want of 



90 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

fresh air and food. The poor sorrowing father 
held up the lamp to let its light fall on the 
face of his dear, dead boy. There was no 
look of pain upon it. A sweet, happy smile 
seemed to be resting on every feature, just as 
if he had been seeing something beautiful, 
when he was dying all alone in that dark 
corner of the mine. On looking a little fur- 
ther, the father saw that Willie had died with 
his pocket knife in his right hand. He won- 
dered what this meant. But he soon found 
out. Holding up his lamp, and looking round 
him, he saw some letters cut in the smooth 
surface of the wall of soft coal, under which 
he had died. The letters were big and 
rough, for they had been cut in the dark, and 
the dear fellow had been obliged to feel his 
way with his fingers as well as he could. It 
took the poor father some time to spell them 
out, for his hand trembled so that he could 
hardly hold the lamp steady, and his eyes 
were so full of tears that it was hard work 
for him to see at all. But at last he man- 
aged to spell them out, and then he found 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 91 

that his dear boy had busied himself during 
his last hours in cutting this sweet text from 
the 27th Psalm in that rock of coal : " When 
my father and mother forsake me, then the 
Lord will take me up" How beautiful this 
was ! Yes, Jesus, " the bright and morning 
star," was there, shining sweetly on that dear 
boy as he lay down to die in the corner of 
that dark mine ! And the shining of this star 
gave him hope, — the hope of a bright and 
better home in heaven. And this blessed hope 
it was which left that sweet smile which the 
father saw on the face of his dear, dead boy. 
Another story comes in very well here. It 
is not a true story, like the one we have just 
had, yet I use it because it illustrates ' very 
nicely what a blessed thing hope is. This 
story is about 

THE GOOD ARAB. 

The Arabs have a good many stories which 
are not true, but which are valuable because 
they illustrate important and useful lessons ; 
and this is one of that kind. 



92 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

A rich Arab was once travelling through 
a wilderness, when he was attacked by a 
band of robbers. They ordered him to give 
up every thing he had, and threatened, with 
their drawn swords in their hands, to kill 
him in a moment, if he hesitated. He or- 
dered his servants to give up all they had. 
They did so. Then he handed over to the 
robbers three bags of gold which were hid 
away under the cloth of his saddle. He gave 
them, too, a small cabinet of precious stones, 
which was carefully stowed away with his 
other baggage. He also delivered up his 
silver-hilted sword, with its ivory sheath, and 
his splendid turban, made of blue silk, with 
red tassels and sparkling with diamonds and 
other jewels. 

When he had done this, he said to the 
robbers : " Now, masters, I have given you 
all I have. You are welcome to them. Take 
them, and let me go." 

" Nay," said the captain : " I can't let you 
go yet. I see a silken cord hung round your 
neck. We must see what is at the end of it 
before we part." 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 93 

The Arab calmly pulled this cord from his 
bosom. At the end of it was a small phial, 
or glass bottle, that seemed to be filled with 
water. Taking it in his hand, he said, — 

" I have given you freely every thing else 
I had; but I cannot give you this. If I 
should give it to you, it would be of no value 
to you, for you know not how to use it. But 
it is worth all the world to me. I never can 
part with it while I live." 

" Tell us," said one of the robbers, w why 
you give up your gold and jewels, and set so 
much value on this little phial ! " 

" This little phial," said the good Arab, 
" is the most valuable thing in the world to 
me. When all my worldly goods are taken 
away from me, and nothing is left but the 
sandy shore and the barren wilderness, I 
have only to put this little phial to my eye 
and look through it, and immediately I see 
wonderful things. The barren waste changes 
into a fertile field. Wells of clear, cool water 
are bubbling up ; refreshing streams are flow- 
ing through the beautiful plains ; tall palm 



94 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

trees are spreading out their refreshing shade, 
and flowers in all their loveliness are bloom- 
ing around me." 

" Let me look at this wonderful phial," 
said the chief of the robbers, stepping up to 
the Arab. He handed it to the robber, who 
put it to his eyes and looked through it very 
earnestly, but it made no change in any 
thing. The desert was desert, and the rocks 
were rocks still. Not a tree, or flower, or 
single beautiful thing, appeared to him. He 
handed it back, and said, " Why, I can't see 
any thing through your phial." 

" That's just what I told you," said the 
Arab. " This phial was given to me by a 
prophet of God. It is the phial of hope. But 
no one can see the bright and beautiful 
things which it shows, till they learn to know 
and love and serve God. Once I could see 
nothing more through this phial than you do 
now. But God has taught me how to use it ; 
and now, whenever I look through it, every 
thing is bright and beautiful. It always gives 
me comfort, and makes me happy. So I 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 95 

carry it round my neck. It is the greatest 
blessing that I have ; and I would rather part 
with every thing else I have in the world 
than part with this." 

Then the story says that the robbers gave 
back to the good Arab all the things they 
had taken away from him, and he went on 
his way feeling very happy. And this story 
affords a good illustration of the blessed hope 
which Jesus gives to those who love him. 
This hope is just the same to us as if there 
were a door into heaven set open before us. 
We can look through that door, whenever 
we are in trouble, and see all the blessed 
things that the Bible tells us of, and which 
God is preparing for his people. And Jesus 
may well be called "the bright and morning 
star," because he gives us — hope. 

But there is a third thing that Jesus gives, 
when we see him as " the bright and morning 
star" and that is — joy. And this is a good 
reason why Jesus may be compared to such 
a star. 

One of our great poets has said, " A thing 



96 THE SUN OF BIGHTEOUSNESS. 

of beauty is a joy for ever." The meaning 
of this is, that it always makes people glad, 
or gives them joy, to see a beautiful thing. 
And this is true. Now a star is a beautiful 
thing. And " the bright and morning star" 
is very beautiful. Whenever I think of this 
star, I am reminded of my first visit to Switz- 
erland a good many years ago. We went up 
from Geneva to the valley of Chamouni, to 
see Mont Blanc. It was Saturday even- 
ing when we arrived there. I wanted very 
much to see how that great mountain would 
look when the sun was rising on it. So, on 
the next morning, I got up between three 
and four o'clock to be in good time to see 
the sun rise. I dressed myself, and all 
alone, walked quietly down the valley, that I 
might be ready to catch the first sight of the 
beams of the sun, as they began to shine upon 
the snowy summit of the mountain, and gild 
it with golden beauty. It was a beauti- 
fully clear night, or rather morning, though 
it was still quite dark. There was no mist 
around the mountain, and not a cloud in the 



THE BRIGHT AKD MORNISTG STAR. 97 

sky. The summit of Mont Blanc is a great, 
rounded dome of snow. This was lifted far 
up, into the clear, dark sky. And right over 
the top of the mountain I saw the morning 
star. How calm it seemed there ! How soft 
and silvery was the light it shed ! How 
brightly and beautifully it was shining down 
on the snowy summit of that great mountain. 
It was one of the most lovely sights I ever 
saw. I thought it was worth while to go all 
the way to Switzerland, if there had been 
nothing else to see there but just that beau- 
tiful sight of the morning star above the 
summit of Mont Blanc. As I walked slowly 
down the valley, looking at that beautiful 
star, I thought of these sweet words of Jesus, 
" I am the bright and morning star" The 
sight of that star made me glad. It gave me 
joy then, while I was looking at it. And it 
gives me joy now, whenever I think about it. 
But all the stars in the world put together 
are not half so beautiful as Jesus is. And 
when we see him, and know him, as our 
" bright and morning star," there is no joy to 



98 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

be found in any thing else so great as that 
which he gives. 

A star gives light ; and we always connect 
the thought of joy and gladness with light. 
In the Bible, light and gladness are spoken 
of as though they were the same thing. Thus 
David says, " Light is sown for the righteous, 
and gladness for the upright in heart " (Ps. 
xcvii. 11). And this is a proper way of 
speaking, because light is a joyous and a 
gladdening thing. 

SINGING IN THE LIGHT. 

Here is a story about a little boy in a mine, 
different from the one we had a short time 
ago, and which illustrates nicely this point of 
our subject. This little fellow lived far down 
in a deep, dark mine. He was stationed 
beside a door in a low passage-way, and his 
business was to open and shut that door 
when the cars came along, carrying the coal 
from one part of the mine to another. It 
was a dark and dismal place to be in ; and 
yet that boy tried to make the best of it, and 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 99 

to be as cheerful and happy as he could 
under the circumstances. He built a little 
playhouse, with blocks of coal, in the corner 
of the mine where he had to stay. He would 
amuse himself by watching the miners as 
they were digging away at the coal. And, 
when they threw aside the bits of candle 
which had burned too low for their use, he 
would pick them up, and lay them by in his 
playhouse. 

One day a gentleman was visiting this 
mine. When he came to the place where 
this little boy was, he found him sitting down 
by his coal playhouse, and he stopped to 
have a little talk with him. He saw a lot of 
those bits of candles in front of his playhouse. 

" Well, my little man," said he, "pray tell 
me what you are going to do with these bits 
of candles? " 

" Oh, sir," said the cheerful boy, "I saves 
'em till I gets a big lot. Then I sticks 'em 
all over my playhouse, and lights 'em all at 
once ; and then, while they's burning, I sits 
down in the light, and sings" 



100 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

He was a wise little fellow. And if the 
dim light of those bits of candles could give 
that poor collier boy joy enough to set him 
a-singing in his gloomy corner of that dark 
mine, how happy and joyous we should be in 
the light which shines on us from Jesus, " the 
bright and morning star " ! 

the African's joy in jesus. 

A poor African had been brought to know 
Jesus, and to walk in the light which he 
causes to shine upon his people ; and this is 
the way in which he told of the joy which he 
found in Jesus. 

" The story of Jesus," said he, " is my 
hymn, my prayer, my Bible. I weep tears 
of joy over it when I can't sing. And when 
I can't weep over it any longer, then I sing 
about it. I thank God for it, from the sole 
of my foot to the crown of my head." 

talking with jesus. 
A good minister of the gospel was visiting 
among the poor, one winter's day, in a large 
city in Scotland. 



THE BEIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 101 

He climbed up into a garret, at the top of 
a very high house. He had been told that 
there was a poor old woman there, that no- 
body seemed to know about. He went on 
climbing up, till he found his way into that 
garret room. As he entered the room, he 
looked round. There was a bed, and a chair, 
and a table with a candle burning dimly on 
it, a very little fire on the hearth, and an old 
woman sitting by it with a large Testament 
on her lap. 

The minister asked her what she was doing 
there. She said she was reading. " Don't 
you feel lonely here ? " he asked. " Na, na," 
was her reply. " What do you do here all 
these long winter nights ? " 

" Oh," she said, " I just sit here, wi' me 
light, and wi' me fire, and wi' me New Tes- 
tament on my knees, talking wi 9 Jesus!" 
This was very sweet. You see how pleas- 
antly "the bright and morning star" was 
shining in that poor old woman's garret 
room ! And you see what joy she found in 



102 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

the beautiful light which that star shed all 
through her lonely chamber ! There is noth- 
ing else in all the world which could have 
given to that aged woman, in her poverty 
and loneliness, such comfort and joy as she 
found in having Jesus, " the bright and morn- 
ing star," shedding down his blessed light 
upon her soul! 

And thus we have seen three things that 
the star gives : they are guidance, and hope, 
and joy. And Jesus may well be called 
" the bright and morning star," because these 
are the very things that he gives to his 
people. 

How thankful we should be that we have 
this beautiful star to shine upon us ! How 
anxious we should be to follow his guidance, 
and to have the hope and joy that he gives 
dwelling in our hearts, and making us cheer- 
ful and happy in our lives ! Yes ; and how 
earnestly we should pray, and labor too, to 
have this star arise and shine in all those 
parts of our world that are still full of dark- 



THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR. 103 

ness ! We should look up to God and say, 
in the words of the hymn, — 

" Let not thy spreading gospel rest, 

Till through the world thy truth has run ; 
Till with this Star all men are bless'd, 
Who see the light or feel the sun." 

" I AM THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR." 



IV. 

JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 



IV. 

JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 

" Thou shalt call his name Jestjs ; for he shall save his people 
from their sins" — Matthew i. 21. 

This was what the angel Gabriel said to 
Joseph, who afterwards married Mary, the 
mother of our Saviour. When a baby is 
born, it is sometimes a good while before his 
parents and friends can agree about his name. 
But, when our Saviour was born, there was 
no difficulty in telling what he was to be 
called. It was all arranged beforehand. God 
made choice of his name in heaven, and sent 
an angel down to tell what that name was to 
be. The angel said, " Thou shalt call his 
name — Jesus." This is the sweetest name 
that ever was given to any one. Some names 
sound very pleasantly when we speak them, 
although they have no particular meaning. 
But this name is sweet, not only because it 



108 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

sounds pleasantly when we pronounce it, — 
Jesus, — but also because it has so much 
meaning in it. The angel said this name was 
given him because he was to "save his people 
from their sins." The meaning of the name 
Jesus is — Saviour. And what Jesus saves 
from is sin. 

Sin is the most dreadful thing in the world. 
All the sickness and sorrow and pain and 
misery that we see around us were caused 
by sin. Sin brought death into the world. 
As we travel over the earth, we find graves 
everywhere. It was sin that dug all these 
graves. The dreadful storms that sweep 
over the earth; the fearful pestilences that 
cut men down, as the scythe mows down the 
grass ; and the terrible earthquakes that de- 
stroy thousands of lives in a moment, — all 
these were caused by sin. All the angry 
quarrels and bloody battles that have taken 
place among men have been occasioned by 
sin. And if this were all that sin does, al- 
though this is dreadful enough, still it would 
not be so very bad. If sin only ended in the 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 109 

grave ; if it had no power to follow us into 
the other world, then it would not be such 
a dreadful thing after all ; and we should not 
have so much reason to be afraid of it. But 
it is not so. Sin does not end in the grave. 
It will follow us into the other world. Unless 
it be pardoned here, in this life, it will follow 
us into eternity and cling to us there for ever. 
The Bible tells us that God has a dreadful 
prison on the other side of the grave. It is 
sometimes called hell, sometimes " the bottom- 
less pit," and sometimes " the lake of fire." 
The fire there, God tells us, was " prepared 
for the devil and his angels." It was pre- 
pared for them, because they were the first 
sinners. How dreadful it is to think of being 
shut up in that terrible place ! And yet the 
Bible tells us that " the wicked shall be 
turned into hell, and all the people that for- 
get God" (Ps. ix. 17). And this is just 
what sin would bring us all to, if we had no 
Saviour. This is what makes a Saviour so 
necessary. And, when God sent his Son 
into our world, he ordered that he should be 



110 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

called by this name, Jesus, because he was to 
save his people from their sins. And, when 
we hear or think of the name of Jesus, we 
are reminded of the dreadful sufferings from 
which he saves us. And this is one of the 
thoughts which makes his name seem so 
sweet to us. This is the reason why we can 
say with so much truth, — 

" There is no name so sweet on earth, 
No name so sweet in heaven, 
As that before his wondrous birth 
To Christ the Saviour given. 

" We love to sing around our King, 
And hail him blessed Jesus ; 
For there's no word ear ever heard 
So dear, so sweet, as Jesus." 

This sweet text may well be considered as 
one of the beautiful " rays from the Sun of 
Righteousness." And, as we look at Jesus 
in the light of this ray, we may see three 
great things in him, which should encourage 
us to seek him as our Saviour. 

In the first place, there is GREAT POWER in 
Jesus; and this is a good reason why we 
should desire to have him for our Saviour. 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. Ill 

We need a Saviour because we are sinners. 
We are born into this world with hearts that 
are sinful and need to be changed. And this 
is what makes it so necessary that he who 
undertakes to be our Saviour should have very 
great power. He must have power to change 
our sinful hearts, and make them good. He 
must have power to help us to do what is right, 
and to refuse to do what is wrong. He must 
have power over all the holy angels to com- 
mand them to wait upon us, and help to take 
care of us. He must have power over Satan 
and the wicked angels, to keep them from doing 
us any harm. He must have power over the 
sun and the moon and the stars ; over winds, 
and storms, and earthquakes ; over kings and 
rulers, and men and women, — over every- 
body, and every thing, so as to be able to make 
all things work together for good to those who 
love him. And this is just the power that 
Jesus has. He said himself, when he was in 
this world : " All power is given unto me in 
heaven, and in earth " (Matt, xxviii. 18). 
And this power is given unto him, on purpose 



112 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

that he might be just such a Saviour as we 
need. He can do every thing for us that it 
is necessary to have done. 

Soldiers like to follow a captain who has 
more strength or courage, or knowledge, or 
skill in fighting, than any one else. And this 
is a good reason why we should all try to 
have Jesus for our Saviour, because he has 
more power to help and save and bless us 
than any one else has. 

There is a story told of one of the old saints, 
which illustrates this part of our subject very 
well. His name was St. •Christopher. The 
story says that he was born in the Black 
Forest, in Germany, some hundreds of years 
ago. When he grew up to be a man, he was 
as big as a giant, and his strength was equal 
to his size. Because he was so strong, he 
resolved to make every one serve him, unless 
he could find some one who was stronger than 
himself. He heard of a great baron who was 
the strongest man in the world, and was not 
afraid of anybody. He went to this baron 
and offered to engage in his service. 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 113 

After serving him awhile, he found that the 
baron was very much afraid of the devil. 
Then he left the baron's service, and offered 
to serve the devil, because he was stronger 
than the baron, and was not afraid of any- 
one But by and by he found out that the 
devil was afraid of Jesus. And then the 
story says that he quitted the devil's service, 
and went and offered himself to Jesus, as 
his servant. Jesus received him kindly, and 
the giant served him as long as he lived, 
for he never found any one stronger than 
Jesus. 

Jesus has showed his great power by what 
he has done for us. He has done for us 
what no one else in the world could have 
done. Let me try to show you what I mean 
by this. 

THE MAST THAT PAID. 

Some time ago, a Christian lady was spend- 
ing the summer at the seaside. She used to 
go about and visit the cottages in the neigh- 
borhood. In one of these she found a poor, 

8 



114 THE SUN OF BIGHTEOUSNESS. 

half-witted boy, named Matt, He could not 
tell one letter from another, and seemed 
hardly to have sense enough to understand 
any thing. She felt interested in him, and 
often visited him in his home, and walked 
with him in the fields and along the shore, 
trying to teach him something about God, 
and heaven, and his own soul. 

Before the summer was over, she found that 
the poor boy, somehow or other, had learned 
to know that he was a sinner ; and he was 
greatly distressed about it. She saw that 
the only way to comfort him would be to 
teach him about Jesus, who came to " save 
his people from their sins." But how could 
she expect this poor, feeble-minded boy to 
understand these great things ? She resolved 
to try. Taking his hand kindly in hers, she 
said to him one day, " My poor boy, I know 
that you are a sinner. These sins are the 
debts you owe to God. Now when one man 
owes a debt to another man, which he can't 
pay, he must be put in prison for it. God has 
a prison too, called hell. But though you 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 115 

cannot pay these debts to God, you need not 
go to prison; for Grod loves you, and does 
not wish you to go there. God has a dear 
Son, named Jesus, whom he sent all the way 
from heaven on purpose to pay your debts, 
and so keep you from going to prison. He 
did this by suffering and dying on the cross 
for you. And so, you see, this God-Man, 
Jesus, has paid all your debts ; and you 
don't have to go to prison." 

Matt listened with his exes and ears wide 
open, while the lady was talking to him ; 
and then, with great earnestness, he said, 
" Tell it me again, — tell it me again ! " She 
repeated what she had said. She told him 
over again " the old, old story of Jesus and 
his love ; " she told it to him slowly and sim- 
ply, u that he might take it in." And God, 
by his blessed spirit, helped him to take it in. 
He saw and understood the great love of 
Jesus in dying for his sins. This took away 
all his fear. His sorrow was turned to joy, 
and his poor distressed heart was comforted. 
For a time he seemed to forget every thing 



116 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

but God, and his great love in Jesus Christ. 
One day, while his kind friend was talking 
to him about Jesus, as they sat by the sea- 
side, his heart seemed full of joy, and jump- 
ing to his feet he stretched out his hands 
towards heaven and shouted, " God, and 
man who paid the debt, Matt says thank you, 
thank you." 

From that time, Matt never lost the joy 
that he found in having Jesus for his Saviour. 
Not long after, he was taken sick, and died ; 
and the last words he was heard to speak 
before he died were, " Man that paid the 
debt, do come and fetch poor Matt to live 
with thee." 

And if Jesus could pay the debt of sin for 
all his people, and could make such a poor 
child as Matt understand about it, then he 
must have very great power. And this is 
the first reason why we should desire to have 
him for our Saviour. 

But there is great willingness in Jesus 
to save, as well as great power ; and this is the 
second reason why we should seek him as our 
Saviour. 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 117 

Sometimes we meet with persons who have 
great power to help others, but who are not 
willing to do it. We hear at times of very 
rich people, whose money gives them a great 
deal of power to help the poor and suffering, 
but they are not willing to help them. We 
have heard, at times, of persons who have 
stood by, and seen some of their fellow-creat- 
ures in danger of death by drowning or by 
fire, and have been unwilling to help them, 
although they had the power to do so. We 
have heard of persons who have been con- 
demned to death. They are led out to die, 
even though they have done nothing wrong. 
A cruel king looks on, and sees what is tak- 
ing place. He has power to save their lives, 
if he chooses to do so. It only needs that he 
should write a line. Nay, he need not even 
take that trouble. He can do it, by just lift- 
ing his finger or nodding his head. Yet he 
is not willing to do even that. He has the 
power to save, but not the willingness. 

But how different it is with Jesus! His 
willingness to save is just as great as his 



118 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

power. The Bible tells us that he is " abun- 
dant in mercy ! " " He is ready to forgive," 
and " he waiteth to be gracious." He says 
himself, " Him that cometh unto me I will in 
no wise cast out " (John vi. 37). He never 
refused to help or save any who came to 
him, when he was on earth. And he is just 
the same still. Whatever else you are not 
sure about, you may be quite sure of this, — 
that Jesus is always willing to save those who 
really want to be saved. 

Let us look at some illustrations of the 
willingness of Jesus to save. 

TAKE FREELY. 

A ship was sailing once in the waters of 
the southern Atlantic Ocean. The men on 
the look-out saw another vessel sailing up 
towards them. As she came nearer, they saw 
that she had signals of distress flying. They 
were wanting something. When they came 
near enough, the captain took his speaking 
trumpet, and hailed the stranger. " Ship, 
ahoy ! " 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 119 

" What do you want ? " 

" We are dying for water : can you give us 
some ? " 

" Dip it up then. There is plenty around 
you. It's all fresh. You are off the mouth 
of the Amazon." 

The river Amazon, you know, is one of the 
widest and largest rivers in the world. It 
rolls a great volume of fresh water a hundred 
miles or more out to sea. The sailors on 
board that vessel were suffering and almost 
perishing for water to drink. They thought 
there was nothing but salt water about them, 
when they were surrounded for miles on 
every side by pure, fresh water. They had 
nothing to do but just to dip it up and drink. 

And so Jesus is saying : " If any man thirst, 
let him come unto me, and drink " (John vii. 
37). The water of salvation is flowing all 
about us. " The Spirit and the bride s-dj, 
Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. 
And ivhosoever will, let him come, and take of 
the water of life freely ." Jesus is always will- 
ing to save everybody who wants to be saved. 



120 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



A sailor's EXPERIENCE. 

A Swedish sailor attended the noon-day 
meeting in New York one day. When the 
meeting was opened, and any persons who 
wished to speak were invited to do so, the 
sailor stood up to say a few words. He was 
not in the habit of speaking in public, and he 
could not speak English very well ; but he 
said he wanted to tell what Jesus had done 
for his soul. 

" Once, on a long voyage," said he, " Jesus 
by his blessed spirit showed me that I was a 
great sinner. Then my heart was full of 
sorrow : I said to myself, l What must I do to 
be saved ? ' But there was no one near to 
tell me what to do. I was thinking about 
my sins all the time, and was in great dis- 
tress. 

" One dark night I was standing at the wheel 
steering the ship, when I thought of Jesus. 
I tried to remember all that I had heard about 
him, and lifted up my heart in prayer to him 
for help. And all at once it seemed as if 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 121 

Jesus heard my prayer, and met me at the 
wheel. He spoke sweet words of love and 
mercy, as I stood at the wheel in the midst 
of that dark night. I heard him whisper- 
ing to me words like these : ' Come to me, 
weary, burdened one ; I will give you rest. 
I cast none out who come to me. I am meek 
and lowly of heart. Learn of me. Take my 
yoke : it is easy. Take my burden : my grace 
will make it light.' 

" There at the wheel, in the dark and 
stormy night, Jesus came to me. He showed 
me how willing he is to receive poor sinners. 
I love him because he first loved me. I can- 
not speak your language very well, but Jesus 
understands me, and I understand him. And, 
ever since I met him at the wheel as the poor 
sinner's Friend, I want to tell everybody how 
willing Jesus is to save." 

SEEING I AM JESUS' LAMB. 

An infant school, made up chiefly of Jewish 
children, was once put in the charge of a 
Christian lady. Among the hymns that she 



122 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

taught her scholars was a very sweet ona 
beginning, — 

" Seeing I am Jesus' lamb." 

Most of the scholars learned it in a short 
time, and they were very fond of singing it. 
One day in the middle of summer, one of the 
scholars met the teacher, and told her that, 
on the day before, a little Jewish boy belong- 
ing to the school had fallen into the river, and 
came very near being drowned. 

On the next Sunday, this little fellow was 
in school again. The teacher spoke to him 
kindly, and asked him how it happened that 
he fell into the river. 

He said he was walking on a plank by the 
edge of the river, when he stumbled, and fell 
into the water. 

" Were you not very much frightened when 
you found yourself in the water ? " 

" No, ma'am." 

" But what did you think about when the 
water closed over your head ? " 

" Why," said the little Israelite, and his 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 123 

eyes sparkled as he spoke, " I thought over 
the words of the beautiful hymn you taught 
us: — 

" Seeing I am Jesus' lamb, 

He, I know, will lose me never ; 
When I stray, he seeketh me : 

Death is but new life for ever. 
Father, to thy home on high 
Take me, for Christ's lamb am I." 

This shows us that Jesus is just as willing 
to receive children, and to save them, as he 
is to save men and women. Indeed, when he 
was on earth he showed more interest in chil- 
dren than in any other persons. But Jesus is 
willing to receive, and save, and bless, all kinds 
of persons ; and the more needy and helpless 
we are, the more ready he is to be our Friend 
and Saviour. 

JUST AS I AM. 

Here is an incident from the late war, which 
illustrates very sweetly how unwilling Jesus 
is to give any persons up, and how ready he 
always is to help and bless us. 

A young man named James Rivers was 



124 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

engaged to be married to a young woman 
named Ellen Boone. The time for their 
wedding was not far off, when the war broke 
out. Then the wedding was put off. James 
went to the war. For a while every thing 
went on well. Battle after battle was fought, 
and he conducted himself like a brave soldier 
as he was. He was promoted again and 
again. His letters home were all full of hope 
and encouragement. Sometimes these letters 
were written in the quiet tent, and sometimes 
they were rough pencilled lines, written hur- 
riedly on the back of a knapsack, while rest- 
ing from a weary march. The time passed 
swiftly on, and every one was hoping that the 
sad strife would soon be ended. 

Then came the greatest struggle of the war. 
Thousands fell on both sides, and sorrow took 
her seat by many firesides all over the land. 
Ellen Boone received a letter one day that 
was written in a strange hand. She hastily 
tore it open, and read as follows : — 

" Dear Ellen, — These lines are written 
for me by the ward-master of the hospital. In 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 125 

the last battle, I lost my arms. They have 
both been taken off close to the shoulder, and 
now I am a cripple for life. I send this note 
to tell you that you must not think any more 
of marrying me. I can never care for you 
now, as a husband ought to care for as good 
a wife as you would be. You are released 
from all the precious promises you have given 
me. They say I am doing well. Our regi- 
ment was badly cut up. 

Affectionately yours, 

James Rivers." 

No answer was ever written to that letter. 
James Rivers was alone for a few days in the 
great hospital, but he was not alone one day 
longer than it took to make a certain jour- 
ney. One afternoon there were quick foot- 
steps on the hospital stairs, and a lady was 
seen walking hastily down the aisle that led 
to the place where that armless soldier was 
lying. All the patients in the hospital were 
astonished, when they saw her kneel down at 
his bedside, and put her arms tenderly round 



126 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

his neck. And then, like a true and faithful 
woman as she was, she spoke the best words 
of all her life, when she said : " James, don't 
mind the lost arms too much. You are 
dearer to me now than when you had them. 
I will never let you leave me again." 

But Jesus loves us a hundred times more 
than that noble-hearted woman loved the 
wounded soldier to whom she was engaged. 
And the more feeble and helpless and needy 
we are, the greater is his willingness to save 
us and bless us. And the second reason 
why we should seek him as our Saviour is 
because he has great willingness to help. 

But then Jesus has great tenderness, as 
well as great power and willingness ; and this 
is the third reason why we should take him 
as our Saviour. 

Sometimes we meet with good people, who 
are able to help us, and willing enough too 
to do it, when we ask them ; but they do it 
in such a rough way, and they speak so 
crossly about it, that our feelings are very 
much hurt, and we can hardly keep from 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 127 

crying, even when they are doing the very 
things that we asked them to do. And we 
go away, feeling that we never shall be will- 
ing to ask them to do any thing for us again. 
But ah ! how different it is with Jesus ! He 
is called " the Lamb of God," because he is 
always so gentle, and kind, and loving in his 
ways. The prophet Isaiah said of him, that 
" he would not break a bruised reed, nor 
quench the smoking flax" And Jesus said 
himself, when showing how tender he would 
be in helping his people, " As one whom his 
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." 

JOY OVER THE SAVED. 

A gentleman was once travelling down the 
Ohio River in a steamboat. He was ac- 
quainted with the captain of the boat. As 
they were talking together one day, the cap- 
tain pointed to the pilot, who was standing 
by the wheel. 

"That pilot," said the captain, u is a re- 
markably brave, good fellow. Some weeks 
ago, he asked me to take the helm. I did so, 



128 THE SUN OF KIGHTEOUSNESS. 

and he jumped overboard to save the life of 
a boy, whom he saw struggling in the water. 
He did it at the risk of his own life. But he 
saved the boy." 

" I went up to the brave man," said this 
gentleman, " to have a little talk with 
him." 

" Do you ever see the boy whom you saved ?" 
I asked. 

" Oh, yes, sir: every trip that we make he 
comes down to see me." 

" And how do you feel towards him when 
you see him ? " 

''More than I can tell," said he. "I feel 
a deeper interest in that boy than even in 
any of my own seven children at home, for 
whom I never ran such risk." 

This gives us a beautiful illustration of 
what Jesus meant, when he said that there is 
more joy in heaven over one sinner that 
repenteth than over ninety-and-nine just 
persons, like the angels, that need no repent- 
ance. And so, wonderful as it appears, it is 
yet true that, when we are trying to serve 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 129 

Jesus, and take him as our Saviour, he feels 
a more tender interest in us than he does in 
any of the angels of heaven. And the reason 
is that he died for us ; but he never died for 
the angels. 

HE CARRIES THEM UP THE HILL. 

Some children had once been committing 
to memory the twenty-third Psalm, — that 
beautiful psalm — in which David speaks of 
God as his shepherd. After they had learned 
their lesson, they went on talking about what 
Jesus, the good shepherd, does for his sheep 
and lambs. 

" He guides them," said one of the chil- 
dren, " and feeds them, and drives away the 
bears and lions from them." 

" Yes," said the littlest child among them, 
" and he carries them up the hills." This is 
true ; and it shows us how great the tender- 
ness of Jesus is. I suppose this dear child 
was thinking of that sweet passage in which 
the prophet, Isaiah, when speaking of Jesus, 
said : " He shall feed his flock like a shepherd : 

9 



130 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

he shall gather the lambs with his arm^ and 
carry them in his bosom " (Is. xl. 11). 

" I TAKE CARE OF MY LAMBS." 

A gentleman in England was walking over 
his farm one day with a friend, and was 
taking great pleasure in showing him his 
orchards, his crops, his herds of cattle, and 
flocks of sheep. The visitor was very much 
pleased with every thing that he saw on the 
farm ; but nothing pleased him so much as 
the splendid sheep which this gentleman had. 
He had seen the same breed of sheep before 
but these were the largest, and strongest, and 
finest-looking he had ever seen. With great 
earnestness, he said to his friend, " Do tell 
me how you manage to raise such splendid- 
looking sheep as these." His answer was : — 

" I take care of my lambs, sir." 

But no shepherd ever took such tender 
care of his lambs as Jesus does. And when 
we know how much he loves us, and how 
tenderly he feels towards us, we need not 
fear to trust him for any thing that we want. 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 131 



"IF YOU LOVE ME, LEAN HARD. 

An American lady was laboring as a mis- 
sionary in Turkey. Her health was poor, and 
she was feeling very feeble. One hot Sunday 
afternoon she sat on her mat, in the chapel, 
hardly able to keep her place, and longing 
for something to lean on for support, till 
the service was over. Several of the native 
women, who had been converted, were sit- 
ting by her. Presently she felt one of these 
women getting up close behind her, and 
heard her whisper, " Lean on me." She did 
not notice it at first. Then the whisper was 
repeated, " Lean on me." She leaned a little 
on the kind-hearted woman, who with great 
earnestness repeated the whispered words, 
" If you love me, lean hard" How kind and 
tender and thoughtful this was ! Yet this is 
just the way in which those who truly love 
us always feel. But nobody loves us as Jesus 
does. Nobody is so tender and kind as he 
is. And there is no one on whom we may 
lean so hard, and whom we can trust so con- 



132 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

fidently for every thing, as we can do with 
Jesus. 

OUR HAND IN CHRIST'S. 

A little girl lay on her dying bed. She 
had been suffering from a sad and painful 
disease. The doctors had tried all they could 
to cure her, but in vain. And now they 
had given her up. They could do no more 
for her. Not long before, this dear child's 
step had been as light, her face as bright, 
and her heart as joyous as those of any of her 
companions. But now her body was racked 
with pain, death was laying his cold hand 
upon her, and she was soon to enter into 
eternity. 

Her loving father sat by her bedside, 
watching the look of pain on the pale face of 
his suffering child. 

" Nannie, dear," he said, with quivering lip, 
and his eyes filled with tears, " do you feel 
sad at the thought of dying ? " 

" No, dear papa," she replied, as a sweet 
smile lighted up her dying face, " my hand is 



JESUS THE SAVIOUR. 133 

all the while in the hand of Jesus, and he will 
not let it go." 

How beautiful this was ! And how tender 
and loving it was in Jesus to come near in 
this way to the dear child when she was 
dying, and take all her fear away by making 
her feel as if he was holding her hand in his, 
and would not let it go. 

And thus we have spoken of the three 
things in Jesus which make him such a won- 
derful Saviour. He has great power, great 
willingness, and great tenderness. And it 
was because the angel Gabriel knew he had 
these great things that he said to Joseph, his 
reputed father, before he was born, " Thou 
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his 
people from their sins." 



V. 
JESUS THE WAY. 



JESUS THE WAY. 
" J am the way" — John xiv. 6. 

This word " way " may mean either one of 
two things. It may mean the road along 
which you must go to reach a certain place. 
If you are in New York, and wish to go to 
Liverpool, the way to get there would be to 
go and take your passage in one of the ocean 
steamers : then you go on board that steamer, 
and, if God shall favor the voyage, in due time 
you will find yourself " at the haven where you 
would be." That is the way to Liverpool. 
This is one meaning of the word " way." 

But then the word "way" has another 
meaning. Sometimes it means the thing that 
must be done in order to secure any particu- 
lar end. For instance, you have a lesson to 
learn. The only way to do this is to sit 
down and study it, and keep on studying till 



138 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

you have learned it. Suppose my watch has 
run down and stopped. The way to make it 
go again is to take the key and wind it up. 

And, when we think of heaven, Jesus is 
the way in both these senses. He is, as it 
were, the road along which we must walk, in 
order to get there. He has done all that is 
necessary, in order that we may enter heaven. 
God has promised to take us to heaven, on 
account of what Jesus has done. If we 
believe this and trust in Jesus, we shall cer- 
tainly be saved. There is a grand old hymn 
used in the service of the Episcopal church, 
called " The Te Deum." In one of its verses, 
the worshippers are led to look up to Jesus, 
and say : " When thou hadst overcome the 
sharpness of death, thou didst open the king- 
dom of heaven to all believers." 

"lam the way" This is what Jesus says 
of himself. And the most important things 
in the Bible are the things it tells us about 
Jesus. He is " the Sun of Righteousness ; fi 
and every passage that tells us any thing 
about him may well be called a ray from this 



JESUS THE WAY. 139 

sun. " I am the way." These words teach 
us that Jesus is the way to heaven, or the 
way of salvation. 

And so the subject we have now to con- 
sider is Jesus the way to heaven. And the 
question we must try to answer is this : 
What kind of a way to heaven do we find 
in Jesus ? 

There are four things that mark this way 
of which we are to speak. 

In the first place, the way of salvation through 
Jesus is a PLAIN way. 

Sometimes we have to walk in paths that 
are not plain. If we get into a paved street 
or a turnpike road, then we are in a plain 
way. It is easy to find a way like that, and 
easy to keep it when it is found. But if we 
are travelling over a sandy desert, or through 
a rocky country where there is nothing to 
mark the path, then we are in a way that is 
not plain. It is hard to find the way, and 
hard to keep it when it is found. At every 
step, we are liable to get off the right track. 

But it is different with the way of salvation 



140 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

in Jesus. This is a plain way. It is easy to 
find and easy to keep, if we only ask God to 
help us in finding and keeping it. When the 
prophet Isaiah is speaking of the times of 
Christ, and of the knowledge of salvation 
that should then be enjoyed, he says : " And 
an highway shall be there, and it shall be 
called, The way of holiness: the wayfaring 
men, though fools, shall not err therein" 
(Is. xxxv. 8). 

And when God gave directions about this 
way to another of the prophets, he said, 
" Make it plain, that he may run that readeth 
it" (Hab. ii. 2). 

And if we consider what is necessary for 
us to know, in order to walk in this way, we 
shall see at once how plain it is. 

An aged minister in England, whose name 
was John Newton, once said: " When I was 
young, I was sure of many things ; but there 
are only two things of which I am sure now : 
one is that I am a great sinner, and the other 
is that Jesus is a great Saviour." These are 
the two most important things in the world 



JESUS THE WAY. 141 

for us to know. If we learn to know these 
two things, we shall know what this way of 
salvation is, and we shall understand how 
plain a way it is. 

it is DARK. 

Here is an incident that illustrates how 
plain and simple the way of salvation in Jesus 
is. 

The father of a little girl was once in great 
trouble and distress of mind on account of 
his sins. He lay awake, after going to bed 
one night, in fear and dread; he felt like a 
ship tossed about by a storm, and unable to 
find any rest or peace. The hours of the 
night were going slowly and wearily by. 
He could not sleep because of his trouble. 
His little daughter was sleeping in her crib 
beside his bed. Presently she began to move 
about uneasily. Then he heard her voice, 
speaking timidly amidst the darkness : — 

" Papa ! papa ! " she called. 

" What is it, my darling ? " he asked. 

" Oh, papa, it's so dark. Take Nellie's 



142 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

hand." He reached out, and took her tiny 
little hand, clasping it firmly in his own. A 
sigh of relief came from her little heart. At 
once she was quieted and comforted. All 
her loneliness and fear were gone. She felt 
that a loving father was near her, and in a 
few moments she was sound asleep again. 

That father felt that his little child had 
taught him a valuable lesson. 

" Oh, my Father in heaven, my Saviour 
and my God," he cried, " it is dark, very dark 
in my soul. Take my hand." 

So he turned to Jesus, and trusted in him ; 
and he had a sweet feeling of peace come 
over him. " This is all I need," he said. 
" Jesus my Saviour keep hold of my hand." 

And this is the way to find peace and 
salvation. When we feel afraid on account 
of our sins or of any trouble, we must put 
our hand in the hand of Jesus, and trust in 
him, just as this dear child trusted in her 
loving father. This is the way of salvation 
that Jesus came to teach us. And this is a 
simple, plain way. 



JEStTS THE WAY. 143 

MAKE IT SO PLAIN THAT I CAN GET HOLD 

OF IT. 

A minister of the gospel had a son who 
was a colonel in the army. Tidings came to 
this father one day that his son had been 
wounded in battle, and was not expected to 
live. He hastened to the hospital to see him. 
On arriving there, he asked the doctor if his 
son was in danger. " He cannot live more 
than three or four days," said the doctor; 
"and he may die any moment." 

With a sad heart, the father went in to see 
his boy ; for, though a minister's son, he was 
not a Christian. 

" Oh, father," said the wounded man, " the 
doctor says I must die, and I am not prepared 
for it. Tell me how I can be ready. Make 
it so plain that I can get hold of it." 

" My son," said the father, " do you re- 
member one day, years ago, when you came 
home from school, I had occasion to rebuke 
you for something you had done ? .You became 
very angry, and abused me with harsh lan- 
guage." 



144 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" Yes, father. I was thinking it all orer 
before you came, and I wanted so badly to 
see you, and ask you once more to forgive 
me." 

44 Do you remember, after your anger had 
passed off, how you came in and threw your 
arms round my neck and said, 4 My dear 
father, I am so sorry for speaking to you 
in such a wrong way. Won't you forgive 
me?"' 

44 Yes, I remember it very distinctly." 

44 Do you remember what I said to you, as 
you wept upon my neck ? " 

44 Oh, yes. You said, ' I forgive you with 
all my heart,' and you kissed me. I shall 
never forget those words." 

44 Did you believe me ? " 

44 Certainly. I never doubted any thing you 
said." 

44 And then did you feel happy again ? " 

44 Yes, perfectly happy. And since that 
time I have always loved you better than 
ever before. I never shall forget how it re- 
lieved me, when you looked so kindly on 



JESUS THE WAY. 145 

me, and said, 'I forgive you with all my 
heart.' " 

" Well, now, my son, this is the way to 
come to Jesus. Tell him, 4 1 am so sorry J 
just as you told me ; and he will forgive you 
a thousand times quicker than I did." 

" Father, is this the way to become a 
Christian ? " 

" I don't know any other way, my dear son." 

m Why, father, I can get hold of this. Oh, 
I am so glad you came to tell me, and make 
it all so plain ! " 

The wounded man turned his head upon 
his pillow, and lifted up his heart in prayer 
to Jesus. The poor distressed father sank 
into the chair, covered his face with his hands, 
and wept as only a loving father would do. 
He wept a long time. Then he felt his boy's 
trembling hand laid gently on his head, and 
the word " father," spoken in such a tone of 
tenderness and joy that he felt sure a change 
had come over him. 

" Father, my dear father, I don't want you 

to weep any more. And you need not. It's 

10 



146 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

all right with me. I am perfectly happy 
now. Jesus has forgiven me, — I know he 
has, for he says so ; and I take his word for 
it, just as I took yours." 

After a while, the doctor came in. He felt 
the pulse of the wounded man, and said with 
surprise, " Why, Colonel, you look better." 

" I am better, Doctor. I'm going to get 
well." 

He did get well ; and he is living now, the 
joy and comfort of that father who made the 
way of salvation so plain that he could get 
hold of it. 

Jesus said, " I am the way." The way of 
salvation in Jesus is a plain way. 

The second thing about this way for us to 
consider is that it is A BROAD way. 

I mean by this that it is wide enough to 
take in all sorts of people. Jesus was show- 
ing how broad the way of salvation is when 
he said : " Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest " (Matt. xi. 28). And the Apostle John 
was showing the same thing when he said : 



JESUS THE WAY. 147 

" Whosoever will, let him come and take the 
water of life freely" (Rev. xxii. 17). Jesus 
was showing the same thing about this way 
when he said : " Whatsoever ye shall ask of 
the Father, in my name, he may give it you" 
(John xv. 16). 

These words, "whosoever" and " whatso- 
ever" are two of the most precious words 
connected w T ith the way of salvation. " Who- 
soever " is on the outside of the gate that 
opens into this way, and it tells us that any 
one may come in who wants to. " Whatso- 
ever " is on the inside of the gate, and shows 
us that those who enter this way, and walk 
in it, can get every thing they need to make 
them safe and happy. 

Here are some sweet and simple lines, 
written about a conversation among some 
children in reference to this word : — 



" WHOSOEVER." 



There were children on the floor, 
Conning Bible verses o'er. 

" Which word, all the Bible through, 
Do you love the best ? " asked Sue. 



148 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

"I like ' faith ' the best," said one. 
" l Jesus ' is my word alone." 

" I like ' hope/ " and " I like 'lore/ w 
" I like ' heaven/ our home above." 

One, more small than all the rest, 
" I like ' whosoever ' best." 

" ■ Whosoever/ that means all, — 
Even I, who am so small. 

* Whosoever ! ' Ah ! I see ; 
That's the word for you and me." 

" Whosoever will " may come ; 
Find a pardon and a home. 

Here is an incident which shows how true 
these lines are about this word " whosoever: " 

A SAILOR SAVED. 

There was a poor sailor who had lived a 
very wicked life, as sailors are very apt to do. 
Once, while far off at sea on a long voyage, it 
pleased God to awaken his conscience and 
show him what a sinner he was. Then he 
was in great distress. The thought that he 
might die in his sins and be lost for ever was 
terrible to him. There was no one on board 
the ship to give him any help, or tell him 



JESUS THE WAY. 149 

what to do. But he read his Bible whenever 
he had a chance. One night he lay in his 
berth in the forecastle. His shipmates were 
all asleep around him. In the dim light of 
the feeble lamp that hung near, he was trying 
to read a little in the Bible. He came to the 
sixteenth verse of the third chapter of John : 
" God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." He put his finger on this word " who- 
soever," and thought about it. " Whosoever," 
said he, " that means anybody : that means 
everybody. Why, that means me ! " 

Then he turned in faith to Jesus, and he 
received him. He got into the broad way of 
salvation through this sweet word " whoso- 



ever." 



THE LOST RESTORED. 



One day, a minister in one of our large 
cities was visiting with a friend among some 
of the poorest of the population. He stopped 
in front of a wretched-looking house, and 



150 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

knocked at the door. No one answered. He 
opened the door and went in. A rickety- 
bedstead, a couple of broken chairs, the re- 
mains of a table, and a few pieces of earthen- 
ware on the shelf, made up all the furniture 
of the room. It was the very picture of 
wretchedness and want. In the middle of 
the room, a miserable-looking woman lay on 
the floor drunk. That was her home. She 
was a widow. She had three children, who 
were not then at home. 

The minister said to his friend, " Here is a 
wretched, ruined woman going to the judg- 
ment seat with all her sins upon her head. 
Let us pray for her." They kneeled down, 
and the minister offered an earnest prayer 
that God would have mercy on this poor 
woman ; that he would turn her from her 
sins, and save her soul for Jesus' sake. 

She lay there still and stupid, and seemed 
to take no notice of what was done or said. 

The minister and his friend went away. 
Some months after, that minister was going 
again through that part of the city. A well- 



JESUS THE WAY. 151 

dressed, respectable-looking woman came up 
and spoke to him. 

" I think you must be mistaken, madam," 
said the minister. 

" No, sir, I am not. Do you not remember 
going into a house in this neighborhood some 
months since, and praying over a woman who 
lay drunk on the floor?" 

"I do." 

" Well, sir, I am that woman. I was re- 
spectably brought up by Christian parents. 
I married ; but after a while my husband died, 
and left me with three children in utter pov- 
erty. I saw no way of support for myself 
and children but by my own shame. Then 
I took to drinking to drown my sorrow. I 
was at the lowest point of sin and misery 
when you stopped and offered that prayer 
over me. I thank you for it. That prayer 
saved me. It carried me back to my early 
days. It made me think of my dear mother, 
now in heaven. And, by God's help, I hope 
yet to join her there." 

Oh, ,if is a broad way of salvation that can 
take in such poor wretched creatures as this ! 



152 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS- 



BECAUSE I AXED HIM. 

A gentleman, who teaches a class of boys 
on Sunday evening, was sent for once to visit 
one of his class, a newsboy, named Billy, who 
was very ill. 

As he entered the room, Billy said, " Oh, 
captain, I'm mighty glad to see yer." 

" What can I do for you, my dear fellow? 
Shall I get you a nurse, or some medicine, or 
something nice to eat? " asked the teacher. 

" No, captain, it wasn't that I wanted yer 
for. I wanted to axe yer two questions. The 
first is this : Did you tell us the other night 
as how Jesus Christ died for every feller? " 

" Yes, I did ; for the Bible says that Jesus 
Christ tasted death for every man." 

" Good ! " said Billy : " I thought so. Now 
I've another question. Did you tell us as 
how Jesus Christ saves every feller that axes 
him?" 

" Yes," said his friend ; " for the Bible says, 
6 Every one that asketh receiveth.' " 

" Then I know," said Billy, with a feeble 



JESUS THE WAY. 153 

but happy voice, " that he saves me because 
I axes him." 

The teacher paused to wipe away a tear 
from his eye. Then he stooped down to 
speak to the boy. But Billy's head had 
dropped back on his pillow of rags, and his 
happy spirit had gone to Jesus. 

Jesus says, " I am the way." The way of 
salvation that we find in Jesus is a plain way, 
and a broad way. 

In the third place, we may speak of the way 
to heaven which we have in Jesus as A nar- 
row way. 

And here perhaps some of you may think 
that I am contradicting myself; because, aftei 
trying to prove that this way is broad, I am 
now declaring that it is narrow too. But 
there is no contradiction here. We have 
seen how truly it is a broad way, and that it 
is a narrow way also is just as true. But it 
is not broad and narrow both in the same 
sense. It is a broad way in one sense, and a 
narrow in another and very different sense. 
It is a broad way, as we have seen, because 



154 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

the greatest sinners may come into it, and 
any number of them may come. It is a nar- 
row way, because when sinners come into it 
they must leave all their sins behind. It is so 
broad that the greatest sinner who ever lived 
may come into it ; but at the same time it is 
so narrow that not the least sin can be al- 
lowed to enter it. And this is what Jesus 
meant when he said, " Broad is the way that 
leadeth to destruction, and many there be 
who go in thereat; but narrow is the way 
that leadeth unto life, and few there be that 
find it " (Matt. vii. 13). 

If we wish to walk in this way, we must 
give up every thing that we know to be sin- 
ful. 

For example, there is a vessel lying at an- 
chor. That anchor, you know, goes down 
to the bottom of the water. There it sinks 
in the mud, or clings to the rock, and holds 
the vessel fast. It can make no progress 
while the anchor holds it. It may rise and 
fall, as the tide rises or falls ; but it cannot 
move away from the place it occupies. The 



JESUS THE WAY. 155 

sailors may unfurl the sails, and the wind 
may fill them. And now, if the anchor were 
only taken up, how quickly that vessel would 
begin to move, and how rapidly it would go 
on its way! But the anchor prevents all 
this. It keeps it in one place all the time. 
And just what the anchor does to the vessel, 
one sin, one wrong thought or feeling in- 
dulged or allowed, will do for the soul. It 
will keep it from going on in the way of 
salvation. Jesus will not save us, unless we 
are willing to give up every sin, and let go 
every other dependence, and trust to him 
alone. 

LET GO THAT BRANCH. 

A lady once was led to see that she was a 
sinner. The thought of her sins made her 
feel very unhappy. She mourned and wept 
over them day after day. She went to see 
her minister. He talked and prayed with 
her ; but she could find no peace or comfort. 
The difficulty was just here. She had been 
a very charitable woman, and had given away 



156 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

a great deal of money to the poor. She wanted 
to trust in part to these good works. These, 
she knew, would not be enough of them- 
selves to save her ; but yet she thought they 
ought to be reckoned for something. They 
would not pay the whole price of her salva- 
tion, but still it seemed to her they ought to 
go for part of the price. She was not willing 
to give up her trust in these good works, — 
not willing to let every thing else go, and 
trust to Jesus alone as her Saviour. 

One night, after weeping and praying in 
great distress, she went to bed and fell asleep. 
In her sleep she had a dream. She thought, 
in her dream, that, while standing on the 
brink of a dreadful precipice, she fell over. 
In falling, she caught hold of the branch of 
a tree, and clung desperately to it. In her 
terror, while still clinging to the tree, she 
cried out, " Oh, save me ! save me ! ' ! She 
heard the voice of some one standing below, 
and calling to her. She recognized it in her 
dream as the voice of Jesus her Saviour. 
The voice rung out in clear, distinct tones, 



JESUS THE WAY. 157 

saying, u Let go that branch, and I will save 
you." 

But she was unwilling to loose her hold 
on the tree. Again she cried, — 

" Oh, save me ! save me ! " 

The same voice was heard again, saying: 
" I cannot help you while you cling there. 
Let go that branch, and I will save you." 

At last she made up her mind to do this. 
She let go the branch, expecting to be dashed 
to pieces on the rocks below. But, instead of 
this, she found herself caught in the strong 
encircling arms of her loving Saviour. In 
the joy of feeling herself safe, she awoke. 
And so in her dream she had learned the 
lesson which she had failed to learn in her 
waking hours. She saw that the way of sal- 
vation was too narrow for her to carry any of 
her good works into it. She made up her 
mind not to depend on her charities or good 
works any more. She saw that these were 
the branch she was clinging to, so that Jesus 
could not save her. She resolved to let go 
this branch, to give these all up, and trust 



158 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

only to Jesus. She turned to him, saying, 
in the language of the hymn, — 

" Nothing in my hand I bring, 
Simply to thy cross I cling ; 
Naked, come to thee for dress ; 
Helpless, look to thee for grace ; 
Guilty, to the fountain fly : 
Wash me, Saviour, or I die." 

And so we see how it is that the way of 
salvation in Jesus is a narroiv way. 

There is one other thing about this way to 
speak of; and that is* — it is the ONLY 
way. 

Some people think that there are a great 
many ways to heaven, and that one of these 
is as good as any of the others. Now what 
I think or say on this subject, or what any 
other man thinks or says about it, is of very 
little consequence. The important question 
to ask here is, What does God say about it ? 
There are two passages in the Bible in which 
God speaks out very plainly on this point. 
In one, he says distinctly, " Besides me there 
is no Saviour" (Is. xliii. 11). In the other, 



JESUS THE WAY. 159 

speaking through the Apostle Peter about 
Jesus, God says, "Neither is there salvation 
in any other: for there is none other name 
under heaven given among men, whereby we 
must be saved" (Acts iv. 12). No one can 
ever get to heaven, who does not go there 
through Jesus Christ. Many will go to heaven 
without knowing how they get there. But 
they will find it was Jesus alone who brought 
them there. When infants and young chil- 
dren die, they all go to heaven. But they 
do not go there because they have never 
committed any actual sin. It is true they 
have not sinned themselves ; but they have 
a sinful nature. Their hearts are sinful. 
They could not be happy there unless their 
hearts were changed. But Jesus does this 
for them, and then takes them to heaven 
because he died for them. If we are hoping 
to get to heaven in any other way than 
through the merits and death of Jesus, we 
shall find ourselves mistaken. Jesus is the 
only way. 



160 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



JESUS WILL GO WITH ME. 

A little girl only four years old was taken 
sick, and was very ill. One day her father 
was sitting by her bedside. She turned to 
him, and asked this question : — 

" Papa, does the doctor think I shall die ? " 
With a very sad heart, her father said, — 
" My darling, the doctor is afraid you can- 
not live." Then her pale face grew very sad. 
She thought awhile about the dark graves, 
into which she had sometimes looked down, 
where people were buried. Her eyes filled 
with tears, as she said, — 

" Papa, the grave is dark. Oh, it's very 

dark. Won't you go down with me into it ? " 

With a bursting heart, her father told her 

he could not go with her, till the Lord called 

him. 

" Papa, won't you let mamma go with me?" 

It almost broke that father's heart to tell 

his darling child that, much as her mother 

loved her, she could not go with her either. 

The poor dear child turned her face to the 



JESUS THE WAY. 161 

wall and wept. Young as she was, she had 
been taught about Jesus, as the friend and 
Saviour of sinners. She poured out her little 
heart to him with a child's full faith, and 
found comfort in him. Soon she turned 
again to her father, with her face all lighted 
up with joy, and said, — 

" Papa, the grave is not dark now. Jesus 
will go with me." 

But there was no one else, in all the world, 
who could have done this for that dying 
child. And when you and I come to stand 
as near to the grave as this dear child was, 
we shall want, as she did, some one to go 
with us into the dark and lonely grave. But 
Jesus is the only one who can do this. And 
when this dear child said, " The grave is not 
dark now, for Jesus will go with me," she 
was feeling the same comfort that David the 
famous king of Israel felt, three thousand 
years ago, when he said, "Yea, though I 
walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death, I will fear no evil : for thou art with 
me" (Ps. xxiii. 4). 

11 



162 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

WHICH WAY SHALL I TAKE? 

Some years ago, there was a distinguished 
lawyer in this country, who had an only 
child, a daughter, about sixteen years old. 
She was the light and joy of her father's life. 
His heart seemed to be bound up in her. 

The mother of this young girl was an 
earnest Christian woman. She had tried to 
teach her child that Jesus was the only way 
of salvation, and to make her a Christian. 
But her husband was an infidel. He had 
told his daughter not to believe the Bible, 
and that we could get to heaven without the 
help of Jesus. This daughter loved and 
honored both her parents, and they were 
both worthy of her love and honor. But as 
her father told her of one way to heaven, and 
her mother told her of another way, she could 
not make up her mind which of these two 
ways was the right one. Under these cir- 
cumstances, it is not surprising that she grew 
up to the age of sixteen without becoming 
a Christian. But then she was taken very 



JESUS THE WAY. 163 

ill. It soon became plain that she was going 
to die. She thought about her soul and 
heaven, but could not make up her mind 
whether her mother's way, or her father s 
way, was the right one to take. 

One day, when her father was in her room, 
she said to him with great earnestness : 
" Father, I am going to die. I want my soul 
to be saved. What must I do to be saved? 
My mother has taught me that the only way 
of salvation is in Jesus Christ. You have 
taught me that we can be saved without 
Jesus. Here are two entirely different ways. 
They cannot both be right. Which is the 
right one ? The time has come when I must 
choose one or the other of these ways. What 
shall I do ? Father, shall I take my mother's 
way, or shall I take yours ? " 

That strong man was deeply moved. He 
covered his face with his hands, and walked 
up and down the room in the deepest dis- 
tress. After a while, he came to the bedside 
of his daughter. He took her pale, thin 
hand in his, kissed it fondly, and bathed 



164 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

it with tears, as he said slowly, but sol- 
emnly, — 

" My darling daughter, take your mother's 
way." 

Here is a ship at sea. She has been over- 
taken by a dreadful storm. She has struggled 
long with that storm, but she can do so no 
longer. Her masts are broken, her sails are 
rent. She has sprung aleak. The crew 
have worked at the pumps day and night ; 
but now the pumps are choked, and can no 
longer be worked. The water is rising in 
the hold of the ship. It is very evident 
that she cannot be kept afloat much longer. 
Sooner or later she must sink in the mighty 
waters. There is only one way left to the 
poor sailors for saving their lives. What is 
that? It is to take to the life-boat. If they 
can launch the life-boat, and manage to get 
into it, they may be saved. It is impossible 
for them to expect safety in any other way. 
That is the only way of safety for them. 

And we, as sinners, are just in the position 
of such a storm-tossed wreck at sea. We 



JESUS THE WAY. 165 

are in danger of being lost at any time. We 
are sure of perishing at last, unless some way 
of escape is found. Jesus is the only way. 
He is the life-boat. There is no other way of 
escape for us. Let us take to this life-boat. 
Let us turn to Jesus, and trust in him. Jesus 
says, " I am the way." 

This way of salvation is a plain way — a 
broad way — a narrow way — the only way. 

As we think of the words of this text, let 
us look to Jesus, and offer the prayer of the 
hymn, which says, — 

" Thou art the way, the truth, the life : 
Grant us that way to know, 
That truth to keep, that life to win, 
Whose joys eternal flow." 



VI. 

JESUS THE TRUTH. 



VI. 

JESUS THE TEUTH. 
"I am the truth." — John xiv. 6. 

How many do two and two make ? Four. 
And what do we call that branch of study 
which teaches us about numbers, how to add 
them up, and subtract and divide them ? We 
call it Arithmetic. And it is a truth in arith- 
metic that two and two make four. Now 
suppose that we have a blackboard here. 
Suppose we draw a house on one side of it, 
and another house on the other side. And 
then suppose we draw several lines from one 
of these houses to the other. One of these 
lines is full of curves, another is a zigzag 
line, and another is a straight line. Which 
of these three lines will give us the shortest 
distance from one of those houses to the 
other? The straight line. That study 



170 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

which teaches us all about lines and curves 
and angles we call Geometry. And it is a 
truth in geometry that " the shortest dis- 
tance between any two points is a straight 
line." When we are learning geography, we 
are told that an island is what ? A portion 
of land entirely surrounded by water. And 
what is a peninsula? A portion of land 
almost surrounded by water. These are 
truths in what ? In geography. Who discov- 
ered America ? Christopher Columbus. Who 
was the first president of the United States ? 
George Washington. And what do we call 
the study which teaches us all about different 
nations ? We call it History. And the facts 
just referred to are truths of history. And 
the study which teaches us about God, and 
how to love and serve him, we call Religion. 
And the truths that we are taught about 
God or heaven we speak of as truths in 
religion. But Jesus has so much to do with 
our religion, and what the Bible teaches us 
about it, that we sometimes put his sweet 
and precious name in place of the word relig- 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 171 

ion, or in place of the Bible ; and then, instead 
of saying of a certain doctrine that it is a 
truth of the Bible or a truth in religion, we 
may say that it is a truth in Jesus. 

And so, we see, there are a great many 
kinds of truth. There are truths in arith- 
metic ; and truths in geometry ; and truths in 
history ; and truths in geography ; and truths 
in religion ; or, as we have just said, these 
latter truths may be called " truth as it is in 
Jesus." And this is what Jesus means when 
he says, " I am the truth." What this 
teaches us is that truth in Jesus is the best 
of all truth. It is better for us to know what 
the Bible teaches about him than to know 
every thing else in the world besides. This 
is our subject to-day. The truth in Jesus is 
the best of all truth. And the reasons for this 
we shall see, as soon as we begin to consider 
what this truth does for us. 

I wish to show that there are three things 
which the truth in Jesus does for us. These 
are things that no other truth in the world 
can do ; and thus we know that this is the 



172 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

best truth. It may help us to remember 
these three things, if we bear in mind that 
each of them begins with the letter S. 

Jesus says, u lam the truth" Now, in the 
first place, the truth in Jesus is the best of all 
truth, because it sanctifies OR makes us 

GOOD. 

To sanctify, means to make good, or holy. 
And the pattern, or model of goodness, set 
before us in the Bible, is the example of 
Jesus. He is the best, the most perfect of 
all beings. In the language of the hymn we 
sometimes sing, we may well ask, — 

" Oh, who's like Jesus? " 

And if it were possible for us to go with 
this question to the angels of heaven, as well 
as the inhabitants of all the other worlds 
that God has made, we should come back to 
our own world without finding a better an- 
swer to the question we had taken with us 
than the words of the same hymn, which 
tell us, — 

" There's none like Jesus." 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 173 

There is none like him in heaven ; none 
like him in the earth ; and none like him in 
any other world. He is " the chief among ten 
thousand, and altogether lovely " 

And that which helps to make us like 
Jesus is the very best thing in the world for 
us. Now to be a true Christian is to be like 
Jesus. It is to tread " in the blessed steps of 
his most holy life." It is to " learn of him 
to be meek and lowly in heart." It is the 
truth the Bible teaches us about Jesus, which 
makes us Christians in the beginning. And 
then it is only by knowing more of this truth 
that we "grow in grace," or become better 
Christians. 

Now let us look at some examples of those 
who have learned to know the " truth as it 
is in Jesus," and we shall see that this is the 
truth which sanctifies us, or makes us good. 

Let us take our first example from the New 
Testament. It is that of the first martyr 
Stephen. The Jews were angry with him, 
on account of his preaching. A great crowd 
gathered round him, to put him to death by 



174 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

stoning. In the presence of those angry 
men, who were thirsting for his blood, he 
kneeled down, and offered this prayer: 
" Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ! " 
How truly had he learned to be like Jesus ! 
You remember how he prayed for his mur- 
derers, who had just nailed him to the cross, 
saying, " Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do" 

It was the power of the truth in Jesus 
that made Stephen so much like his blessed 
master. And that truth has the same power 
now that it had then. 

THE SPIRIT OF THE MARTYR STEPHEN. 

There was an account in the papers, the 
other day, of a man who showed that he had 
just the same spirit. His name was Joseph 
Bobbins. He was a bridge watchman on one 
of our railways. He was murdered by a 
neighbor, who wanted to rob him of his 
money. The murderer was caught directly 
after. During the trial, he made this confes- 
sion in open court : - 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 175 

"I knew that Robbins had just received 
his month's wages, and I resolved to have his 
money. I got a shot gun, and went to the 
bridge. As I came near the watch-house, on 
looking through the window, I saw Robbins 
sitting inside. His head and shoulders only 
could be seen. I raised the gun, took aim, 
and fired. I waited a few minutes, to see if 
the report of the gun had alarmed any one. 
But all was still. Then I went up to the 
watch-house door, and found Robbins on his 
knees praying. I listened and heard him 
say, c O God, have mercy on the man who 
did this, and spare him for Jesus' sake.' I 
was horrified. I did not dare to enter the 
house. I couldn't touch that man's money. 
Instead of this, I turned and ran away, I 
knew not whither. His words have haunted 
me ever since." 

Now the prayer of this humble man was 
more remarkable even than the prayer of 
Saint Stephen. The death of Stephen was 
not so sudden as that of the watchman. He 
knew what the Jews were going to do with 



176 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

him, and he had time to think about his 
prayer before he offered it. But Robbins 
was altogether unprepared for what took 
place. He had no expectation of being 
killed. But no sooner did the shot strike 
him than he fell on his knees and prayed, not 
for himself, but for his murderer, without 
even knowing who he was. This man had 
the very spirit of Jesus. And it was know- 
ing and believing the truth in Jesus which 
put this spirit in him. It was this truth 
which had sanctified him, or made him so 
good. And the truth that can do this for us 
is the best of all truth. 

THE SHORT MEASURE. 

When we have been reading the Bible, or 
learning a Sunday-school lesson, or hearing 
a sermon, we ought to try and practise what 
we have been taught. A poor woman, who 
kept a retail store, was asked once, after 
being to church, what she remembered about 
the sermon. She said: "I can't recall the 
text, nor tell just what the minister said ; but 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 177 

I know he preached about short weights and 
measures ; and all that I can say is this, that 
I went home and burnt my short bushel" 
That was the best use she could possibly 
have made of the sermon. 

Here is another story to show how it is 
that the truth we hear about Jesus does us 
good and helps to make us better. This 
story is told of a good, honest Irishwoman, 
whose name was Molly Malone. She used 
to say, after hearing a good sermon, " Sure, 
and it's mighty improvinV But she could 
never give any other account of the sermon 
than this : " It's mighty improvinV' 

Molly was a washerwoman. One day the 
minister found her hanging out her clothes 
on the hedge to dry, and he made up his 
mind to try to find out what she meant by 
the remark she always made about the ser- 
mon. So he began : " Well, Molly, how did 
you like the sermon you heard yesterday? " 

" Plase yer riverence, and it was mighty 
improvin'." 

" And what part of it did you like best ? " 

12 



178 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

u Well, sure, and I liked every part of it," 

" But I suppose there were some parts of 
it you were more struck with than you were 
with others." 

" In troth, plase yer riverence, I don't re- 
member any part exactly, but sure and it 
was mighty improvin'." 

" Now, Molly, how could it be improving, 
if you don't remember any part of it ? " 

" Well, now, yer riverence sees that linen 
I've been washing and dhrying on the hedge 
there?" 

" Oh, certainly." 

" Wasn't it the soap and the wather that 
made the linen clane ? " 

" Of course they did." 

" And isn't the linen all the better for it ? " 

" Oh, no doubt of that, Molly." 

" But not a dhrop of the soap and wather 
stays in it. Well, sir, it's the same thing wid 
me. Not a word of the sarmint stays in me. 
I suppose it all dhries out of me ; but I'm the 
better and the claner for it when it's over, 
for all that." 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 179 

A child's WISH. 

A group of little children were talking to- 
gether. Presently this question was started : 
" What is the thing you wish for most ? " 
Some said one thing, and some said another. 
At last it came to the turn of a little boy, 
ten years old, to speak. This was his an- 
swer: " I wish to live without sinning" 

What an excellent answer that was ! King 
Solomon in all his glory, and with all his 
wisdom, could not have given a better. But 
it was knowing and believing the truth in 
Jesus that put this wish into that dear boy's 
heart. 

THE THISTLE IN THE HEART. 

" I've come again, mamma," said little 
Lillie White, quietly peeping into the cham- 
ber where her mother was writing. " Lillie 
couldn't help it, mamma." 

" And what's the matter with my little 
girl this time ? " said her mother, laying 
down her pen. " You haven't got another 
thistle in your finger, have you ? " 



180 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" No, mamma, the finger is well now ; but 
there is something stinging me here in my 
bosom. You needn't unfasten my dress, 
mamma. You couldn't see it, — it's deep. I 
know what it is : it's wrong feeling there. 
I hate Carrie Marsh, mamma. She is never 
good to any of us. But her aunt in New 
York sends her the prettiest things you ever 
saw. Now she has sent her a blue dress, and 
a doll all dressed in pink and white. She 
brought 'em to me to look at, and said, ' You 
can't have such pretty things, Lillie White.' 
That made me hate her. I know it is wrong 
to have this feeling, and it stings in my heart 
worse than the thistle did in my finger. 
Won't you take this out too, mamma?" 

" Only Jesus can take out a sting like 
this," said her mother, putting her arms very 
gently round her darling's neck. " Go to 
your room, my dear child, and kneel down 
and tell Jesus all about your trouble. Ask 
him to forgive you for giving way to wrong 
feeling, and to take away the sting from your 
heart." 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 181 

The little girl slipped away from her 
mother's arms, and went to her own room. 
After a while, she was seen walking in the 
garden, talking to her poor, soiled dolly, and 
kissing its face as lovingly as Carrie Marsh 
could have done with her fine new one. By- 
and-by she raised her bright and smiling face 
to the window, and, seeing her mother looking 
down, she said, — 

" It's all right now, mamma. Jesus has 
taken away the thistle from my heart just as 
you took away the one from my finger." 

And it was the truth she had learned about 
Jesus which led this dear child to do as she 
did when this thistle was in her heart. And 
this is the best of all truth, because it will 
lead us to try and get all the thistles out of 
our hearts. And this illustrates very well 
the point now before us. It shows us that 
the truth in Jesus is the best of all truth, 
because it sanctifies or makes us good. 

Jesus says, " I am the truth" This is the 
best of all truths, because in the second place it 
SATISFIES AND MAKES US HAPPY. 



182 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

You know how it is with the body when it 
is hungry. That is a very disagreeable feel- 
ing. And, when we have it, nothing will 
take it away, and make us feel comfortable, 
but to have good bread or some other sub- 
stantial food to eat. God gave that bread 
or that food on purpose to take away the 
terrible feeling we have when hungry, by 
satisfying our hunger and making us feel 
comfortable. 

And it is just so with the soul. It may be 
hungry as well as the body. And the hun- 
ger of the soul is more painful, and harder 
to bear than the hunger of the body. Sup- 
pose you go to a person, whose soul is in 
trouble on account of some great sorrow or 
sin, and try to comfort him by telling him 
one of the truths in arithmetic or geography 
of which we have spoken. You say to him : 
" Never mind, my friend. Don't be troubled ; 
because two and two make four ; or because 
the sun rises in the east and sets in the west ; 
or because George Washington was the first 
president of the United States." Do you 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 183 

think that would satisfy him, or do him any- 
good? None whatever. But suppose that, 
instead of this, you go to that person in dis- 
tress, and tell him " the old, old story of 
Jesus and his love." And suppose he be- 
lieves what you tell him about " the truth as 
it is in Jesus," will this do him any good, 
and make him comfortable ? Yes, it cer- 
tainly will. It is the food that this hungry 
soul needs and craves. This will satisfy it, 
and make it happy. 

Let us look at some examples of the way 
in which the truth in Jesus does this for 
those who believe it. 

A SERMON IN STONE. 

The Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King 
Charles I. of England, lies buried in Newport 
Church, in the Isle of Wight. A marble 
monument erected by Queen Victoria shows, 
in a very touching way, what her feelings 
were about the matter of which we are now 
speaking, at the time of her death. During 
the time of her father's troubles, she was a 



184 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

prisoner in Carisbrook Castle, in that same 
beautiful island. While there, she had a long 
spell of sickness. She was alone, separated 
from all the friends and companions of her 
youth, and lingered on in her sorrows, till 
death came and set her free. She was found 
one day dead in her bed, with her Bible 
open before her, and her finger resting on 
these words : " Come unto me, all ye that labor, 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" 
And this is what the monument in New- 
port is intended to show. It consists of a 
female figure representing the young prin- 
cess. Her head is bowed in death ; while her 
hand rests on a marble book before her, with 
her finger pointing to the words just quoted, 
which are engraved on that book. How 
touching this is ! What a sermon in stone 
that monument preaches ! To every one who 
looks at it, it seems to say : " Riches and 
rank cannot make you happy. Jesus only 
can satisfy the soul. If you would be truly 
happy- in life and in death, in this world and 
the world to come, seek to know and believe 
the truth as it is in Jesus ! " 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 185 

Here is another sweet illustration of this 
same blessed truth. We may call it 

THE HAPPY SKIPPER. 

This word " skipper " is what sailors gen- 
erally use for the captain of their vessel. 

Not long ago, there lived a good Christian 
fisherman in the village of St. Monans, on 
the coast of Fife, in Scotland. His name was 
Andrew Davidson, and he was the owner and 
captain of a fishing-boat called " The Rose in 
June." The herring season came, and An- 
drew Davidson and his little crew prepared 
to go to sea. He had but lately been mar- 
ried, and before leaving home he knelt down 
with his young wife and asked God to keep 
her safely while he was away ; but she 
noticed, and her heart sank within her at the 
thought, that he said not a word about his 
own safety. 

The night after " The Rose in June " sailed 
with a fleet of other vessels, a terrible storm 
raged all along the coast. Early the next 
morning, a crowd of women and children, 



186 THE SUN" OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

made up of the families of the absent fisher- 
men, gathered on the beach. Every eye was 
strained across the waters, to catch the first 
glimpse of the returning boats. One by one 
they struggled in ; and shouts of joy and 
thankfulness arose from one and another, as 
a husband, a brother, a father, or a son, sprang 
ashore. But " The Rose in June " did not 
come. Driven by the storm and dashed upon 
the rocks, she had become a total wreck. 
Turned bottom upwards, her crew of six men 
clung to her sides with desperate energy. 
No other boat was near to help or save them, 
and all around the wild waves were rolling 
and roaring, threatening every moment to 
tear each man from his hold, and dash him to 
pieces on the sharp rocks. Andrew David- 
son thought of Jesus in that hour of peril ; 
and, in the face of certain death, that thought 
did for him what nothing else in the world 
could have done, — it made him happy. It 
may have been that he remembered then how 
Paul and Silas glorified God in the prison of 
Philippi ; for he shouted, loud and clear 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 187 

above the storm, " Now, boys, let's sing a 
hymn of praise to God ! " and at once he 
began and sang this verse : — 

" My God, I am thine : 
What a comfort divine, 
What a blessing to know 
That Jesus is mine ! " 

These were his last words. He had hardly 
finished the verse, when a huge wave dashed 
over him with great force, and in an instant 
he was swept far away 

" From every stormy wind that blows," 

into the haven of eternal rest. 

A sad silence fell upon the men who had 
been trying to join in that song of praise. 
For a while no one spoke. At last, John 
Allan, the mate of the little vessel, who was 
also a believer in Jesus, exclaimed, — 

" Come, my lads, let us go on with the 
hymn that our skipper is now finishing in 
heaven." And then those brave men, rock- 
ing on their wrecked boat, with the waves 
dashing and the wild winds wailing around 



188 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

them, sang on till they had finished the hymn. 
The last verse reads thus : — 

" And this I shall prove, 
Till with joy I remove 
To the heaven of heavens, 
In Jesus* own love." 

Just as they were finishing these last words, 
another huge wave burst over the boat, and 
the young mate was carried away to join his 
friend and shipmate in that blessed world, 

" Where, anchored safe, his weary soul 
Shall find eternal rest, 
And not a wave of trouble roll 
Across his peaceful breast." 

The rest of the crew of that wrecked boat 
escaped with their lives. But they never 
forgot the scene they had witnessed during 
that terrible storm. And no sermon ever 
preached about the preciousness of Jesus 
could make such an impression on their minds 
as was made by that memorable scene. They 
felt, deep down into their very souls, that the 
truth in Jesus is the best of all truth, because 
it satisfies us and makes us happy. 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 189 

" I am the truth" And the third reason 
why the truth in Jesus is the best of all truth 
is because it SAVES US. 

But this is what no other kind of knowl- 
edge will or can do. You may understand 
all about the different kinds of knowledge 
that are taught in our schools and colleges. 
You may know all about arithmetic, and al- 
gebra, and mathematics, and geography, and 
history, and botany, and astronomy, and this 
knowledge may be very useful to you in the 
business of this life, but it will not be of 
the least use to you in trying to get to 
heaven. If some poor soul, distressed about 
his sins, should come to you and ask the 
question, "What must I do to be saved?" 
you would find nothing in all those studies 
that would be the least help to you in answer- 
ing that question. 

But, if you only know what the Bible 
teaches about Jesus, you will be able to an- 
swer this question in a moment. It is the 
truth in Jesus alone which shows us the way 
to heaven. If we know and believe this, we 



190 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

are sure to be saved. And when Jesus says, 
" I am the truth," what he means by it is 
this: that the knowledge of himself — that is 
of what his character is, and what the work 
is that he has done for us — is the most im- 
portant of all knowledge. This is the truth 
that sanctifies or makes us good. This is the 
truth that satisfies us and makes us happy. 
And this is the truth that saves us. 

Now let us look at some illustrations of 
the way in which " the truth as it is in 
Jesus " saves us. And remember that all 
the truth about God that we find in the 
Bible is truth in Jesus. It is all saving 
truth. 

THE PICKPOCKET'S STORY. 

Some years since, a respectable-looking per- 
son introduced himself to two Christian men 
in London who were a committee of the Bible 
Society, and were making collections for that 
society. He said to them : — 

u Gentlemen, here are five guineas for your 
excellent society. I thank God for the good 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 191 

work you are doing. Listen for a moment to 
my story, and you will see that I have reason 
enough to thank God for the Bible. 

" Not long ago, I belonged to a company of 
pickpockets. About a year since, two of my 
companions and myself were passing by a 
church that was full of people. It was the 
Anniversary of the Bible Society. Seeing so 
many there, we thought it would be a good 
chance for us to get some money, by carry- 
ing on our wicked business. The church 
was so crowded that we were obliged to 
separate from each other. I got into the 
middle aisle, just in front of the speakers. 
The Ten Commandments, in large gilt letters, 
were on the wall behind the pulpit. The 
first words that caught my eye were : c Thou 
shalt not steal.' In a moment, my attention 
was arrested. I felt as if God were speaking 
to me. My conscience troubled me, and my 
tears began to flow. My companions made 
signs to me to begin our work ; but I took 
no notice of them. As soon as the meeting 
was over, I hurried away to a distant part of 



192 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

the city where no one knew me. I got a 
Bible, and for the first time in my life I 
began to read it. It showed me what a great 
sinner I was ; but it showed me also what a 
great Saviour Jesus is. I prayed to Jesus 
with all my heart. He heard my prayer. 
And now my sins are pardoned, and my soul 
is saved in him. I am on the point of start- 
ing for America. But, before going, I want 
to make a little offering to the Bible cause. 
Please accept these five guineas, and may 
God bless you in the good work you are 
doing." 

THE SAVING WORD. 

When the public drinking fountains were 
opened in London, it was determined, by 
the society that opened them, that every 
fountain should have some text of Scripture 
engraved upon it. The passage selected for 
one of them contained these words of Solo- 
mon : " The fear of the Lord is a fountain of 
life " (Prov. xiv. 27). 

One evening two young men passed by 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 193 

this fountain. The elder of them was a bar- 
tender in a drinking saloon ; the younger 
one was his brother, who had just come in 
from the country, to try to find employment 
in busy London. The bar-tender was tell- 
ing his younger brother of a plan which he 
had formed for making some money by robbing 
his employer. 

" This is my plan, Jim," said he. " And 
a pretty sharp one it is. You see you are a 
stranger here. No one knows you. Well, 
you come into the saloon, and ask for a glass 
of beer. I'll give you the beer, and when 
you have drunk it, you put down sixpence 
on the counter. I'll pretend that it is half 
a sovereign, and will give you the change 
that would belong to you for that sum. In 
the course of the evening, you can come in 
two or three times, and we'll do the same 
thing. Then, after shutting up, we can meet 
and divide the money." 

Jim did not feel satisfied about it, but he 
would probably have followed his brother's 
advice, and have gone to ruin, if it had not 

13 



194 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

been for the saving power of "the truth as 
it is in Jesus." As they went along the 
street, they stopped for a moment by one of 
the public fountains. It was the one that 
had the passage of Scripture on it, to which 
I have referred. Jim's eye rested on it for 
a moment, and he read the words: " The 
fear of the Lord is a fountain of life" He 
thought of the Sunday school to which he 
had been accustomed to go in the country. 
Many other passages of Scripture at once 
came into his mind. Turning to his brother, 
he said : — 

" Joe, God will see us. I dare not begin 
my life in London by thieving." 

The next Sunday he attended a meeting 
of the Young Men's Christian Association. 
He took a stand at once against his brother's 
influence and ways, and soon became a de- 
cided Christian. He was saved from sin and 
ruin. But it was that text of Scripture, 
" the truth as it is in Jesus/' that saved 
him. 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 195 
LEAVES FROM THE TREE OF LIFE. 

The late Rev. Dr. Corrie, bishop of Ma- 
dras in India, was a chaplain there for some 
time before he was made bishop. At that 
time, no translation of the Bible had been 
made into the language of that country, 
which is the Hindostanee. The good chap- 
lain pitied the heathen people about him, 
who were groping in darkness, and knew 
nothing of Jesus. To help in scattering a 
little light among them, he was in the habit 
of translating striking passages of Scripture 
into the language of that country, writing 
them on little scraps of paper, and having 
his servant distribute them at his door every 
morning. In doing this, he was, as it were, 
plucking some of those "leaves from the tree 
of life," which God has appointed for " the 
healing of the nations," and sending them 
forth on their blessed mission. 

Twenty years afterwards, Bishop Corrie 
heard of at least one instance in which a 
soul was healed and saved, by means of those 



196 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

scattered leaves. A missionary at Allahabad 
wrote to him, giving this pleasing informa- 
tion: "I have lately visited a Hindoo, who 
came to this place in ill health. He returned 
here to visit his friends, and to die among 
them, after having been many years absent. 
I was surprised to find that he was not only 
a Christian, but a Christian with a very clear 
knowledge of Jesus, and of the way in which 
he saves the souls of his people. ' How is 
it, my friend,' I said to him one day, ' that 
you understand so much about the Scrip- 
tures? You told me you never saw a mis- 
sionary in your life, and never had any one 
to speak to you about the way of salvation : 
then how did you ever learn so much about 
Jesus ? ' 

" He answered this question by putting his 
hand under his pillow, and drawing out a 
parcel of well-worn, ragged bits of paper, and 
saying : ' From these bits of paper, which 
Sahib Corrie ' — Sahib is the word which 
the Hindoos used for teacher — * used to dis- 
tribute by a servant at his door every day, 



JESUS THE TRUTH. 197 

I have learned all I know about the religion 
of Jesus. These papers I received twenty 
years ago. I have read them every day, till 
now, as you see, thej are almost worn out. 
They contain passages of Scripture in the 
Hindostanee language. All I know about 
Jesus they have taught me ; but what I do 
know of him is worth more than all the world 
to me. It has saved my soul.' " 

And so we see that there are three things 
that " the truth in Jesus" does for us, and 
on account of which it may be considered 
the best of all truth. The first is, it sanc- 
tifies us, or makes us good. The second is, 
it satisfies us, or makes us happy. The third 
is, it saves us. Jesus said, " I am the 
truth." May God help us all to know and 
love this truth ; and may it sanctify us, and 
make us good. May it satisfy us, and make 
us happy, and save us in heaven for ever. 
Amen! 

"I AM THE TRUTH." 



VII. 



JESUS THE LIFE. 



VII. 

JESUS THE LIFE. 
" / am the life." — John xiv. 6. 

In speaking of himself, Jesus uses these 
two little words, " I am " so and so, nearly 
twenty times in the New Testament. And 
every time it is done to tell us something 
most important about himself. Each time 
that this phrase is used it is like another ray 
shining down from the " Sun of Righteous- 
ness." If we put all these rays together, how 
much light they give us about Jesus ! How 
many wonderful things do they teach us ! 
We have already had several of these in- 
structive sayings of Jesus about himself. 
This is the third that we have had in our 
present text. 

" I am the way," and " I am the truth," 
we have had before. And now we have the 



202 THE SUN OP RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

last of these three wonderful sayings of Jesus, 
" I am the life." What a wonderful thing 
life is ! No one can tell how it is that per- 
sons and things are made alive. The wisest 
men in the world cannot tell us how it is. 
But we all know the wonderful difference 
there is between live things and dead things. 
A dead tree and a live tree, — how different 
they are from each other ! We see at once 
the difference between a dead flower and a 
live flower, a dead bird and a live bird, a 
dead baby and a live baby, a dead man and 
a live man. And yet we cannot explain this 
difference. We say that one of them is dead, 
and the other is alive. This is true indeed. 
And it is all that we can say about it. But 
this does not explain what life is. When 
Jesus says in our text, " I am the life," he 
means to teach us that he has more to do 
with life than any one else. No man in the 
world could say this of himself. No angel in 
heaven could say it ; for it would not be true. 
But Jesus can say, " I am the life ; " and it is 
true of him. And the subject we have now 



JESUS THE LIFE. 203 

to speak about is this, — Jesus the life of Ms 
people. 

Now there are four things that Jesus does 
for us, which show us how truly he might say, 
« I am the life." 

In the first place, Jesus may well say, " I 
am the life," because he is the giver of life. 

The Bible tells us that he " giveth to all 
life." And we cannot go anywhere without 
finding living things. Heaven is full of life ; 
for the angels live there. This world is full 
of life ; for, wherever we go, we find people 
living. And, when we go outside of the 
homes in which we live, we find life every- 
where. In the fields, on the hills, up on the 
tops of the highest mountains, in the ponds 
and rivers and seas and in the great ocean, 
far down to its lowest depths, something or 
other is found living. And the air is full of 
life. At the close of a summer day, when 
the sunbeams shine slantingly across some 
lane in the country, you see, as you walk 
along, swarms of little insects dancing about 
there. And it is Jesus who gives life to all 



204 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

these things. The flowers of the garden, 
the grass and plants of the field, the trees of 
the-forest, the creeping things of the earth, the 
birds of the air, the fishes of the sea, animals 
and men and angels, all owe their life to him. 
He is called in the Bible " the Prince of life " 
(Acts iii. 15). And he who gives life to all 
creatures may well say of himself, " I am 
the life." 

But it is particularly because he gives life 
to our souls when they are dead in sins, and 
makes it possible for them to live for ever, 
that Jesus is called " the life." 

THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATER. 

Some time ago, there was a village in Eng- 
land that was poorly supplied with water. 
In summer time, the wells dried up, and the 
people suffered greatly from the want of 
water. About a mile from the village, there 
was a spring that never failed, but yielded an 
abundant supply of excellent water. A good 
man living in that village, who was rich, had 
the water from this spring brought by pipes 



JESUS THE LIFE. 205 

into the village, making a fountain from 
which the people could always get a full 
supply of pure, wholesome water. He did 
this all at his own expense. The people of 
that village were very grateful to him ; and, 
when he died, they built a monument to his 
memory. 

But suppose that, in addition to supplying 
the people of that village with water when 
they were thirsty, this fountain had had the 
power to heal them when they were sick, and 
to make them alive when they were dead : 
what a wonderful fountain that would have 
been! 

And yet such a fountain as this would only 
be a fair illustration of what the gospel of 
Jesus is and what it does for our souls. It 
is a fountain whose water has power not only 
to quench the thirst of the soul, but to heal 
the diseases of the soul, to make dead souls 
alive and cause them to live for ever. This 
sounds very strange, but it is just as true as 
that God lives. 



206 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

BEING ALIVE. 

Let me tell you of a conversation that took 
place between two boys, about the way in 
which Jesus makes dead souls alive. 

" I say, Charlie," said Willie to his brother, 
46 isn't it nice to be alive ! Why, only see 
how I can toss my arms about, and use my 
legs and feet and hands. And, then, I can 
see and hear and feel. I can talk and sing 
and laugh, and do so many things. I tell 
you, Willie, it's real nice to be alive, espe- 
cially when you are all alive, and have no 
part of you dead." 

" No part of you dead ! " said Willie : 
" why, Charlie, what do you mean ? Who 
ever heard of such a thing as being part alive 
and part dead? " 

" I have, Willie." 

" That's strange ! Who was it, brother ? 
I'm sure it must be dreadful." 

" Indeed, it is dreadful, Willie." 

" Do tell me, brother, who it was that was 
in this sad state." 



JESUS THE LIFE. 207 

" It was myself, Willie," said Charlie. 
" The best part of me was quite dead ; and 
what made it still worse was that I didn't 
know it. People told me so, but I didn't 
believe it then. I thought like you that I 
was all alive." 

" But what part of you was dead, Charlie ? 
I don't understand what you mean." 

" It was my soul, Willie, — that part of me 
that thinks and plans and remembers. You 
know that when you shut up your eyes, and 
stop your ears ever so close, there is some- 
thing in you that still keeps on thinking and 
remembering, and being glad or sorry, all the 
same as though you knew and heard. Do 
you understand now, Willie ? " 

" No, I don't. Did you stop thinking and 
remembering, and all that ? and weren't you 
either sorry or glad ? " 

" I didn't stop thinking or remembering, 
Willie ; and was just like you, sometimes 
sorry and sometimes glad. My soul was 
alive enough for other things ; and yet it ivas 
dead towards Grod. When God spoke to me, 



208 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

I didn't hear his voice, any more than that 
poor dead bird we saw a little while ago 
could hear us when we spoke. When God 
called me to look to him, I couldn't see him ; 
and when he told me to love him, I didn't do 
it. I had a dead soul" 

" Well, how did it ever come alive? Do 
tell me all about it." 

" Well, Willie, it was Jesus, the dear, loving 
Saviour, who did it all for me. When he 
was on earth, he said, ; I am the life.' 
And one thing he meant by this was that he 
had power to make dead souls alive. He 
sent his blessed Spirit into my heart, to show 
me that my soul was dead ; and that I never 
could be happy in this world, and never go 
to heaven when I die, unless my soul was 
made alive. And then, Willie, Jesus made 
me see what a wicked thing it is not to be 
loving him and serving him. And then I 
thought what a dreadful thing it would be 
never to have my soul made alive, and not 
to go at last where Jesus is, or to see his 
blessed face for ever. 



JESUS THE LIFE. 209 

" Then I prayed to him and said, c O 
Lord Jesus, do not leave me in my sins. 
Make my soul alive, and teach me to love 
thee and serve thee, that I may live with 
thee for ever.' And the blessed Saviour 
heard me, and ever since he has made me 
feel so happy ! And now I want to love him, 
and serve him, and do all that he tells me to, 
just as long as I stay in this world ; and, 
when I get through living here, I expect to 
go and live with him in heaven." 

" Why, Charlie, if what you have told me 
is true, then my soul must be dead too." 

" That's so, Willie." 

" I think, brother, you have told me all this 
about yourself, just that I might go and ask 
Jesus to make me alive, as he did you." 

" Yes, Willie, that's just what I've told it 
to you for. Your soul is just as mine was 
before I asked Jesus to make it alive. We 
all have dead souls till we come and pray to 
Jesus. He is the only one who can make 
dead souls alive. And this is what he meant, 
when he said, i I am the life.' I want you 

14 



210 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

to go at once to Jesus, and ask him to make 
your dead soul alive. Then I can apply to 
you, Willie, the words of that beautiful para- 
ble, and say, ' This my brother was dead, but 
is alive again ; was lost, and is found.' 

" And when I get home to heaven, I shall 
have my little brother with me ; and we shall 
live together with Jesus in that beautiful 
country, where 'there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor any more crying for ever.' ' : 

And so we see that the first reason why 
Jesus might say of himself, "I am the life," 
was because he is the Giver of life. 

The second reason^ why he might say this, is 
because he is THE SUPPORTER of life. 

We have no power to make ourselves alive, 
and therefore we need such an one as Jesus 
to give us life. But, when life is given to us, 
we have no power to keep it, or preserve it ; 
and therefore we need such an one as Jesus 
to support our life, after it has been given to 
us. Nothing in the world has power to keep 
itself alive. And nothing could continue to 
live, if it were left entirely to itself. Some 



JESUS THE LIFE. 211 

things, when they begin to live, need a great 
deal more care and support than others do. 
Look, for instance, at a babe that is just 
born, and a chicken that is just hatched. 
How very different they are in the care they 
require ! As soon as the little chicken comes 
out of the shell, it runs about, crying, " peep, 
peep, peep." It sets up for itself at once, 
and begins to scratch in the dirt, and to seek 
and find the food it requires. But how dif- 
ferent it is with the little infant ! It must 
be fed, and clothed, and taken care of, or 
else it will surely perish. 

But there is nothing that requires more 
care and support than our souls do, after 
Jesus has made them alive. We are in a 
position of great danger. If left to ourselves, 
we must perish. In the words of the hymn, 
we may each one say for himself : — 

" My soul, be on thy guard, 
Ten thousand foes arise ; 
And hosts of sins are pressing hard, 
To draw thee from the skies." 

We need help and support all the time. 



212 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

And this is one of the things that Jesus 
meant when he said, " I am the life." He 
wants us to understand that, when he makes 
our souls alive, he will give us all that we 
need to support the life he has given. If we 
have a servant working for us, we can show 
him the work we want him to do ; but we 
cannot give him the strength to do it. Jesus 
can do both. He not only points out the 
work that he wishes us to do, but he gives us 
all the strength we need to enable us to do it. 
He gives us such sweet promises as these: 
" Fear not, I will strengthen thee." " My 
strength shall be made perfect in your weak- 
ness." The Apostle Paul was so sure of the 
truth of these promises that he said, " I can 
do all things through Christ strengthening 
me." And Jesus has wonderful power to 
support his people. He is like a great moun- 
tain in this respect. You know what won- 
derful power a mountain has to support every 
thing that rests upon it. It nourishes the 
grass, and the plants, and the great giant 
trees. Whole forests of trees are supported 



JESUS THE LIFE. 213 

on the sides of the mountain, just as easily as 
you or I could support a feather or a fly on 
our hand. Armies of men, and troops of 
horses, might march up and down the moun- 
tain, and it would support them all. And 
Jesus is like the mountain for his power to 
support his people. And he is like the ocean, 
too. The sea-bird lights on the waters of the 
ocean, and they support it. If you and I 
launch a little boat, just big enough to hold 
us on the ocean, it will support our little 
boat. And when men launch their huge iron 
steamers, by scores and by hundreds, and 
load them heavily with all sorts of freight, 
the ocean supports them as easily as though 
they were light as a piece of cork. And so 
Jesus can support all his people. The young- 
est and the oldest, the weakest and the 
strongest, the smallest and the greatest, he 
can support with just the same ease. He 
supports the mighty angels who stand before 
his throne ; and at the same time he can 
carry the feeblest lamb in his bosom, and 
gently lead along the weakest and the most 
tempted and sorrowing. 



214 THE SUN OF BIGHTEOTTSNESS. 

A child's FAITH. 

A little girl, who had learned to know, and 
love, and trust in Jesus, was once looking 
at a picture which, I have no doubt, most of 
us have seen. It represents a rock rising 
up in the midst of the stormy sea. On the 
top of the rock stands a cross. To this cross 
a female figure, just escaped from the angry- 
waves, is seen clinging. She seems faint and 
exhausted, but she clings closely to the rock. 
At her feet is seen the hand of some one still 
in the water, but grasping a part of the wreck 
that is sinking down amidst the waves. 

" What does this mean ? " asked the little 
girl. 

" It is called 4 The Rock of Ages,' and is 
intended to represent Jesus, our blessed Sav- 
iour, to whom we cling for salvation. You 
know the hymn says : — 

" ' Other refuge have I none, 

Hangs my helpless soul on thee.' 

"And agaiji, — 

" * In my hand no price I bring, 
Simply to thy cross I cling.' ** 



JESUS THE LIFE. 215 



u 



Oh, yes," said the child, after a moment's 
hesitation ; " but that rock isn't my Jesus : 
for, when I cling to him, he reaches down and 
clings to me too" 

This was beautiful ! And it is as true as 
it is beautiful. We can use many illustra- 
tions to help us understand what Jesus is, 
and what he does for us. But, however strik- 
ing and beautiful these illustrations are, they 
never can show us all that is true in Jesus. 
He is so unlike every one else ; he is so full 
of love and tenderness and power to help, 
that we can only find it all out when we 
come to prove him ourselves. This little girl 
felt that, while that rocky cross did very well 
to illustrate how strong Jesus is to support 
his people, and how willing he is to let poor, 
perishing sinners take hold of him, it did not 
show how ready he is to stoop down from 
heaven, and stretch forth his almighty arm to 
take hold of them. 

And the second reason why Jesus said, " I 
am the life," is because he is the supporter 
of it. 



216 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

The third reason why Jesus said, " I am the 
life" is because he is the example of life. 

When Jesus came into our world, he had 
two things to do for us. One was to die 
for our sins : the other was to teach us how 
to live. Both these things are beautifully 
taught by the Apostle Peter in one verse, 
when he says that " Christ suffered for us, 
leaving us an example, that ye should fol- 
low his steps " (1 Pet. ii. 21). When Jesus 
makes our souls alive, or, what is the same 
thing, when we become Christians, then the 
one thing we have to do, all the time, is to 
try to be like Jesus. We must try to think, 
and feel, and speak, and act, as we may sup- 
pose that Jesus would do if he were in our 
place. He has gone before us in the way 
to heaven. The marks of his feet are on 
the road, and we must try to " tread in the 
blessed steps of his most holy life." 

THE LITTLE GIRL AND HER COPY. 

A little girl went to writing-school. When 
she saw the copy set before her, she said, " I 



JESUS THE LIFE. 217 

can never write like that." But she took up 
her pen, and put it timidly on the paper. 
Her hand trembled : she stopped, studied the 
copy, and began again. "I can but try," 
she said. "I'll do the best I can." 

She wrote half a page. The letters were 
crooked. What more could be expected from 
a first effort? The next scholar stretched 
across the desk and said, " What scraggy 
things you make ! " Tears filled the little 
girl's eyes. She feared to have the teacher 
look at her book. "He will be angry, and 
scold me," she said to herself. 

But when the teacher came, he looked 
and smiled. " I see you are trying, my little 
girl," he said kindly, " and that is all I ex- 
pect." 

She took courage. Again, and again, she 
studied the beautiful copy. Then she took 
up her pen and began to write. She wrote 
very carefully, with the copy always before 
her. Still she was not satisfied. The let- 
ters straggled here, were crowded there, and 
some of them seemed to look every way. 



218 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

She trembled when she heard the step of the 
teacher. " I'm afraid you'll find fault with 
me," she said: "my letters are not fit to be 
on the same page with the copy." 

" I do not find fault with you," said the 
teacher, "because you are only a beginner. 
Keep on trying. In this way, you will do 
better every day, and soon get to be a very 
good writer." 

" Thank you, sir," said the girl, and went 
on trying to imitate her copy. 

And this is the way we are to try to be 
like Jesus. He is our copy. We must try 
to make our lives like his. But when we 
read about Jesus, and learn how holy, and 
good, and perfect he was, we must not be 
discouraged if we do not become like him at 
once. We cannot become like him in a min- 
ute, or a day, or a year. But, if we keep on 
trying, and ask God to help us, we shall 
" learn of him to be meek and lowly in 
heart ; " and we shall become daily more and 
more like him. 



JESUS THE LIFE. 219 



THE EXAMPLE COPIED. 

Here is a story of a Christian lady who 
had learned well the lesson of being like 
Jesus, and of the good that she did by her 
example. This lady's name was Miss Bishop. 
She had been brought up in one of the New 
England States. Her parents were rich, and 
she had a very comfortable home with them. 
But she was an earnest Christian woman. 
She wished to make herself like Jesus, and 
so she gave herself to missionary work, among 
the Indians, in the distant North-west. She 
had been teaching there for some years. The 
Indians in her school loved and respected her. 
And well they might, for she had labored 
most faithfully for their good. She was kind, 
and gentle, and very patient. The oldest of 
her scholars had never seen her lose her 
temper. And when she read, and spoke to 
them about Jesus, they saw that she was 
following his example, and was living like 
Jesus. This made them feel sure that the 
Bible was true. 



220 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

But some of the scholars, who had not be- 
come Christians, felt uncomfortable about it. 
The truth is, their consciences were troubling 
them for not being Christians. Miss Bishop's 
example seemed to be saying to them every- 
day: " The Bible is true. You ought to 
become Christians." And they thought if 
they could only see her get angry once, they 
would not feel so uneasy about it. 

So, after school one day, some of the larger 
boys had a meeting to talk about it. They 
wanted to settle upon a plan to do something 
that would make Miss Bishop angry. But 
they could not agree, and were on the point 
of giving it up, when one of the boys, Jimmy 
Cornplanter, whose little black eyes had 
been looking intently at the clouds, jumped 
up, and said : " Me know. Me no tell. 
You come to morrow morning, and see. Miss 
Bishop, she mad ! She very mad ! " 

None of them believed that Cornplanter 
could make Miss Bishop angry ; but they all 
promised to come. 

It was in the midst of winter, and that 



JESUS THE LIFE. 221 

winter was an unusually severe one. Early 
the next morning, Jimmy Cornplanter was 
at the school, and so were the other boys, 
long before the time for the teacher to ap- 
pear. He told them his plan, which was 
quickly carried out. 

This was it : to fill the stove in the school- 
room full of snow, and then hide themselves, 
so that, without being seen, they could watch 
and see how angry their teacher would be 
when she came to start the fire, as it seemed 
she was in the habit of doing, and found the 
stove full of snow. 

That morning was bitterly cold. Miss 
Bishop started in good season to get the fire 
burning well before school began. She had 
to make her own path through the snow, and 
she felt chilled through, by the time she 
reached the school-house. Her fingers fairly 
ached with cold as she unlocked the door. 
She thought of the comfortable home she had 
left, where father, mother, sisters, and broth- 
ers were all ready to do every thing for her 
comfort. But she said to herself, "I am 



222 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

doing it for Jesus ;" and that thought warmed 
her heart and made her feel happy. 

She entered the school-room, and, taking 
her little basket of kindlings, she opened 
the door of the stove to start the fire ; 
and there, to her amazement, was the stove 
packed full of snow. 

She rubbed her eyes, to be sure she was 
awake. But there it was. In a moment she 
suspected it was a trick of the boys. Then 
she calmly walked to the door, and, taking the 
water-pail and the fire-shovel, she patiently 
set to work to take out the snow, without 
one angry word or impatient look. 

This was too much for the invisible boys, 
who had watched it all from their hiding- 
places. They came out looking rather fool- 
ish ; but, after asking the teacher's pardon for 
their mischief, they took the shovel and the 
pail, and soon had the snow all removed, and 
a good, rousing fire in the place of it. 

This conduct of their teacher had a won- 
derful effect on the boys. It made them feel 
sure that what the Bible says is true. And, 



JESUS THE LIFE. 223 

during recess that day, she heard them shout- 
ing in triumph, — " Miss Bishop, she can't 
mad ! Miss Bishop, she can't mad ! M 

You see how truly Jesus was the example 
of this good missionary's life. And so the 
third reason why Jesus might say, " I am the 
life," is that he is the example of life. 

There is one other reason why Jesus might 
call himself the life, and this is because he is 

THE RE WARDER of life. 

I mean by this that, when Jesus makes our 
souls alive, and teaches us to live for him, he 
makes us happier than we can be in any other 
way. It says in the Bible that " Ids reward 
is with him" This refers to the happiness 
that Jesus gives to his people in this life. 
Those who really love and serve Jesus are 
the happiest people in the world. When 
David was speaking about the happiness he 
found in serving God, he said it "put more 
gladness in his heart than " worldly men find 
" when their corn, and their oil, and wine 
increase." Corn and wine and oil were the 
things in which men invested their money, 



224 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

in the time of David, when they grew rich. 
And then, if it was said of a man that his 
corn and wine and oil were increasing, the 
meaning of it was that he was getting rich. 
And the gladness which worldly men feel 
when they are getting rich is the greatest 
gladness they have. So that what David 
meant to say was that the happiness he found 
in serving God was greater than any he had 
ever found in this world. And David was a 
good judge in this matter. He was a great 
king and a very rich man. He knew all about 
the happiness that riches bring. And yet he 
said that serving God made him happier than 
being rich. 

And this is just as true to-day as it was 
when David lived, three thousand years ago. 
Let us look at one or two illustrations of 
this. 

SHE GOT HER REWARD. 

A minister in England was travelling 
through the country, holding meetings for 
the Bible Society. He stopped one day at a 
village where he had some business, and 



JESTJS THE LIFE. 225 

went to the inn to get his dinner. A nice- 
looking girl, about fifteen years of age, waited 
on him at the table. This minister always 
liked, when he met with strangers, to say 
something to them that might do them good. 
So, before leaving, he said to this young 
girl : — 

" What is your name, my friend ? " 

" Jane, sir." 

" Well, Jane, do you ever pray ? " 

" Oh, no, sir : I've no time for any thing 
like that. Why, I hardly have time to eat 
my victuals." 

"Now, Jane, I want to make a bargain 
with you. I expect to be back here in about 
two months. I'll teach you a little prayer, of 
only three words, which I want you to say 
every morning. It needn't take any time ; 
for you can say it, if you like, while you are 
getting dressed. And when I come back, if 
you tell me that you have said it every day, 
I'll give you half a crown." 

" I'll do it," said Jane, " I'll do it." 

" Well, be sure and keep your promise." 

15 



226 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" Yes, you may depend on that, for I always 
keep my promise," said Jane. " And now 
tell me what the prayer is." 

" This is it," said the minister. " Lord, 
save me." 

Then he shook hands with Jane, and said 
good-by. 

After two months, he came back to that 
village. On going to the inn for his dinner, 
Jane was not there, and another girl waited 
on him in her place. After dinner, he spoke 
to the person who kept the house, and asked 
where Jane was. 

" Oh, she took to going to church, and left 
here, and now she's living at the Parson's 
down the road." 

Then he went to the parsonage. He 
knocked at the door, and who should open it 
but Jane herself. As soon as she saw the 
minister, she lifted up her hands and said, — 

" You blessed man ! I'm so glad to see 
you again, and to thank you for teaching me 
that prayer. But I don't want your half 
crown, because I've got enough already." 



JESUS THE LIFE. 227 

"Well, well, let me know what you've 
got. Come, tell me all about it." 

" You see, sir, after you went away, I used 
to say that prayer every morning. At first 
I said it carelessly, while I was getting dressed, 
without thinking any thing about it. But, 
one morning after I had said it, these two 
questions came into my mind : what did that 
gentleman want me to say this prayer for ? 
What does ' save ' mean ? I thought the 
Bible would tell me something about this ; 
so I borrowed one, and read in it a little 
every morning. Pretty soon, I read one 
verse, which said, ; The Son of man is come 
to seek and to save that which is lost ; ' and 
another which said, c Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners .' Then I saw 
that I was a lost sinner. This frightened 
me. I began to pray in earnest. I asked 
Jesus to pardon my sins, and make me a 
Christian, and teach me to love and serve 
him. He heard my prayer. He has done 
all this for me ; and now I'm just as happy 
as the day is long. And so I thank you for 



228 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 



teaching me that prayer, but I won't take 
your half-crown." 

Now, here we see how Jesus made this 
girl's soul alive, and then rewarded her by 
making her life happy. • 

But it is only a small part of this reward 
that Jesus gives to his people in this world. 
The greater part of it is laid up for them in 
heaven, and will be given them hereafter. 

TRUE RICHES AMIDST POVERTY. 

An aged man was sitting by the fire in an 
almshouse. He was poor and deaf, and his 
limbs were shaking with palsy. 

" What are you doing ? " said a friend who 
called to see him. 

"I am waiting." 

"And what are you waiting for?" asked 
his friend. 

"I am waiting for the coming of my 
Saviour ! " 

" And why do you wait for his coming ? " 

" Because I expect great things when he 
comes." 



JESUS THE LIFE. 229 

" What do you expect he will give you? " 

" I know he will give rae, because he has 
promised it, ' a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens.' ' In his presence 
there is fulness of joy: at his right hand 
there are pleasures for evermore.' I am 
waiting for these." 

How well that man might feel happy ! He 
was living in the poor-house indeed ; and he 
was deaf, and shaking with the palsy; and 
yet he was better off than the richest man 
in the world, or the mightiest king on his 
throne, who has no share in the reward that 
Jesus gives. The story about Jane and her 
little prayer shows us how Jesus rewards his 
people in this life ; and the story about the 
poor man in the almshouse, waiting for the 
coming of Jesus, shows us how he will reward 
his people in the world to come. 

Jesus said of himself, "1 am the life" 
We have spoken of four good reasons why 
he might well say this. The first is because 
he is the giver of life ; the second, because 
he is the supporter of life; the third, be- 



280 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

cause he is the example of life ; and the 
fourth because he is the rewarder of life. 

Now the best thing in the world for each 
of us to do is to get Jesus to be our life. 
We never can begin to live in the right way, 
till we have Jesus living in our hearts, and 
teaching us to live for him. We have had 
three sermons on this one text, " I am the 
way, and the truth, and the life." Let us 
all look up to Jesus, and say, in the words of 
the hymn : — 

" Thou art the way, the truth, the life : 
Grant us that way to know, 
That truth to keep, that life to live, 
Whose joys eternal flow ! " 



VIII. 

JESUS THE VINE. 



VIII, 



JESUS THE VINE. 



" / am the vine." — John xv. 5. 



The land of the Bible was a land famous 
for its vines. They grew in its valleys and 
on its plains and hills. The people used to 
make terraces or steps, and then have gar- 
dens and vineyards up to the very tops of the 
hills. This must have made the country look 
very beautiful. There were vines all around 
Jerusalem. When Jesus was preaching to 
his disciples the sermon in which our text is 
found, he was, it is supposed, on his way from 
the chamber where he had kept the passover 
to the garden of Gethsemane where he was 
to be betrayed. It was night, and the moon 
was shining. He probably stopped on the 
way, under some spreading vine. We can 
think of the moonbeams falling with their 



234 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

silvery light through its leaves. He looked 
up and saw the overhanging branches. He 
knew how they depended on the vine for all 
their life and growth and beauty. This made 
him think of his people and himself. And 
so he used the vine, as he has used so many 
other things, to teach us something about 
himself, when he said, " I am the vine.' 9 

When we see a vine with its graceful 
branches, its broad leaves, and ripening fruit, 
we cannot help thinking what a beautiful 
thing it is to look at. And this is one reason 
why Jesus compares himself to the vine. 
Every beautiful thing that we see in the nat- 
ural world around us may remind us of Jesus, 
and teach us something about him. And it 
is just so with the vine. This is another 
46 ray from the Sun of Righteousness." Let 
us study this ray, and see what it teaches us 
about Jesus. 

Our subject is Jesus compared to the vine. 
There are three things in a vine, on account 
of which Jesus may well be compared to it. 

In the first place, we find shelter in the 



JESUS THE YHsTE. 235 

vine ; and for this reason Jesus may be com- 
pared to it. 

I suppose there is not one of us who has 
not proved the truth of this. We can all, I 
doubt not, remember times when we have 
been very glad to get the shelter which the 
vine yields. Perhaps we have been taking a 
long walk, in the heat of summer, and have 
found ourselves exposed to the scorching 
beams of the sun : then we have looked round, 
and have seen a large spreading vine. Its 
broad, thick leaves make an effectual screen 
from the heat of the sun. How cool and 
inviting the shadow of that vine seems ! We 
sit down there, and feel thankful for the pleas- 
ant shelter which the vine affords.* And this 
is what Solomon means (Cant. ii. 3) when he 
compares Jesus to a vine or tree, and says, 
" I sat down under his shadow with great 
delight, and his fruit was sweet unto my 
taste." And, if we really learn to know and 
love Jesus, we shall often find him like a 
sheltering vine to us. 

When we are exposed to danger, when we 



236 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

are sorrowing for our sins, or are in trouble 
on any other account, we shall find how 
sweetly Jesus can shelter us. 

Some years since, a lady from New London 
was on a visit to a friend in New York. 
There was a young girl in this family who 
was a scholar in the Sunday school belonging 
to the church which her father and mother 
attended. She was so much attached to her 
school and teacher, that she was never willing 
to be absent if she could help it. The lady 
visitor was going home to New London on 
Saturday afternoon, by the steam-boat which 
goes through Long Island Sound ; and she 
wanted very much to have Susan, her young 
friend, go- with her. When it was first men- 
tioned, Susan seemed very willing and glad 
to go. But, when she remembered that it 
would take her away from her class and her 
teacher whom she loved so much, she changed 
her mind, and said : " No, I had rather not 
go. I am not willing to be away from my 
class." 

The lady urged her to go. Her father and 



JESUS THE YINE. 237 

mother freely gave their consent, but still she 
was unwilling to leave. Her friend took the 
steamer for New London on Saturday after- 
noon, and departed. Near midnight, when 
the passengers were asleep, another steamer, 
coming from an opposite direction, ran into 
the New London boat. She was cut down 
to the water's edge, and sank almost imme- 
diately. If Susan had been with her friend, 
she would have found a watery grave with 
her. I do not mean to imply that there 
would have been any thing wrong in it if she 
had gone to New London. I only use this 
incident to show how God made use of this 
young girl's love for her Sunday school, in 
order to save her life. While in her place in 
the school, she was sitting under the shadow 
of the true vine ; and she found shelter in it. 
It saved her from the danger to which she 
would have been exposed, had she gone. 

A CHILDLIKE FAITH. 

One afternoon, two little children, named 
Willie and Fannie, were left alone. Willie 



238 THE SUN OF KIGHTEOTTSNESS. 

was seven, and his sister Fannie was five 
years old. Their mother had gone into the 
village, and would not be back till after dark. 
The children got on very well while day- 
light lasted. But when evening came, and 
darkness gathered round them, so that they 
could not tell one thing from another, and 
there was no light but the glimmering one 
which came from the fire on the hearth, they 
began to feel a little afraid. Willie, how- 
ever, who was the big boy, put on a brave 
outside, and when little Fannie asked, " Aren't 
you afraid ? " said, — 

" No : what do you think can hurt us 
here ? " 

But when Fannie began to cry, and came 
crouching down by his side, saying between 
her sobs that she heard a noise, then Willie 
began to feel the need of a higher power 
than his own to take care of them. Taking 
hold of his little sister's hand, he said: — 

" Please don't cry, Fannie ; but let's pray. 
God can take care of us even if there was a 
lion right in the room." 



JESUS THE TINE. 239 

" Why, how could he ? " 

" God can do any thing, Fannie. Don't 
you remember what mamma told us about 
Daniel, — how he was right in among lots of 
lions, and God came and shut their mouths 
so they couldn't bite at all ? " 

"Couldn't they growl, either?" asked 
Fannie. 

u I don't know about the growling," said 
Willie ; " but I know God could make them 
stop growling too, if he wanted, for he can 
do any thing." 

" Well, Willie, if he can do any thing, I 
wish he would make mamma come home." 

" Maybe he will, if we ask him to." 

Clasping her little hands together, Fannie 
said, " O God, please to make mamma come 
home, and make it light, so we can see." 

" Why, Fannie, that isn't the way to pray," 
said Willie. " We must kneel down, and try 
to think what a big God he is, and how he 
knows all about whether we have been good 
or not." 

" Then let's kneel down, and you pray." 



240 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

They knelt down, and Willie repeated the 
Lord's Prayer, and then said : " Please, God, 
we know we have been very naughty, lots of 
times ; but we want to be good. Please take 
care of us, and help us to be good, and make 
mamma come home quick, for we are all 
alone : for Jesus' sake. Amen." 

Then little Fannie said her evening prayer, 

" ' Now I lay me down to sleep/ " &c. 

After this, they rose from their knees. 
Their fear was all gone, and they felt quite 
safe and happy till mamma came home. 

Now, in doing this, these dear children 
were putting themselves under the care of 
Jesus, and they felt he was a shelter to them. 
It was this which made them feel so safe and 
happy after they had prayed to him. 

ARMED WITH THE BIBLE. 

Some years ago, an elderly man lived in 
the State of North Carolina, who was re- 
markable for his piety, and especially for his 
strong faith in the Bible, and in the merciful 



JESUS THE VISTE. 241 

Saviour who has given us this blessed book. 
He believed that those who lived under the 
shadow of Jesus as the true vine were shel- 
tered and safe wherever they go. 

He made up his mind once to take a jour- 
ney on horseback, through a part of the west- 
ern country. At this time, that part of the 
country was very much infested with bands 
of robbers. The old man knew this very 
well; and when his friends urged him to 
take a pair of revolvers with him, he de- 
clined, and said he would take no other 
weapon with him than his pocket Bible. So 
he started. After travelling for some time, 
he reached the State of Missouri. One day 
he found himself in the neighborhood of one 
of the worst bands of robbers in all the coun- 
try. It was headed by a desperate man, 
whose name was Jim Stevens. Towards the 
close of this day he met a gentleman, travel- 
ling like himself, alone, and who had thus 
far escaped the robbers. 

The first question this gentleman put to 
him was, — 

16 



242 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



" Sir, are you armed ? " 

"Yes," said the aged Christian, drawing 
his little Bible out of his pocket : " this is my 
weapon." 

The gentleman, who was almost loaded 
down with pistols and bowie-knives, laughed 
loudly at what he considered the old man's 
folly. And then, in a sneering sort of way, 
he said : — 

11 My friend, if that is all the weapon you 
have, you had better be saying your prayers 
pretty quick. The den of Jim Stevens is 
only about ten miles from here. You will 
get there before dark ; and he cares no more 
for Bibles than he does for rattlesnakes." 

They talked together awhile, then each 
told the other his name, and they separated. 

Presently night came on, and it grew dark. 
The traveller saw a light in a house far down 
a glen, a short distance from the road. He 
supposed it was the home of the robbers. 
But he must have shelter and rest, so he 
went up and knocked at the door. In a very 
rough way, they asked him in. It was the 



JESUS THE VINE. 243 

robbers' home, and a desperate-looking set 
of men they were. 

But, not at all afraid, he took the seat they 
offered him, and asked for something to eat. 
They gave it to him. Then he sat and talked 
with them about the country around. By 
and by, the captain of the band, the famous 
Jim Stevens, came in. Seeing a stranger 
present, he walked up to him, and said : — 

" Old man, aren't you afraid to travel in 
this part of the country, among the robbers, 
alone and unarmed ? " 

" No, sir," was the old man's fearless re- 
ply, as he again drew out his Bible, saying : 
" This is my weapon of defence. I always 
read a chapter, and pray too, before going to 
bed. I know you are robbers ; but I'm going 
to read and pray here to night, and shall be 
glad to have you join with me." The whole 
band burst out into a loud laugh on hearing 
this. Not minding this at all, the old man 
began to read. Gradually they all became 
silent ; and, when he knelt to pray, every 
knee was bowed. It was a strange sight to 



244 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

see that band of robbers and murderers kneel- 
ing, and listening attentively to the old man's 
prayer. When he had finished, they showed 
him a bed on the floor, where he lay down 
and slept soundly. 

He arose early the next morning, and read 
and prayed before breakfast. They refused 
to take any pay for his food and lodging, but 
thanked him for the interest he had showed 
in them. 

When he arrived at the next settlement, 
he heard of the death of the gentleman he 
had met the day before, who had such trust 
in his own weapons, and made such mockery 
of the old man's trust in the Bible. This 
man found a sheltering vine in Jesus. The 
Bible says, " It is better to trust in the Lord 
than to put any confidence in man." And we 
may say, as we think of this story, it is better 
to trust in Jesus than in pistols, or bowie- 
knives, or any other weapon. Jesus may 
well be compared to a vine, because he gives 
shelter to those who trust in him. 

But there is refreshment as well as shel- 



JESUS THE VINE. 245 

ter in the vine, and for this reason Jesus may- 
be compared to it. 

The fruit that grows on the vine is the 
grape. And when grapes are ripe, they are 
very refreshing to those who eat them. We 
have spoken of the shelter which the vine 
affords when we feel overcome by the heat 
of the sun. But suppose that, while shel- 
tering ourselves from the heat of the sun, 
and enjoying the cool shade which the vine 
makes, we are both hungry and thirsty too. 
We need something to eat and to drink. We 
cannot feel refreshed without this. We are 
very glad to get into the shade of the vine, 
and so shelter ourselves from the sun's heat. 
But we cannot eat the shade, nor drink it 
either. True ; but there is something else 
there that we can eat and drink. Look at 
those fine, large bunches of nice, ripe grapes. 
We pluck some of them and eat them, and 
they answer both for food and drink. They 
satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst at 
the same time. And then we feel refreshed 
and strengthened, and we are ready to go 
our way with comfort. 



246 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

And so, when we learn to know and love 
Jesus, we find that he is like the vine, be- 
cause there is shelter and refreshment in him. 
What the Bible tells us about him is like 
food to our souls when they are hungry, and 
drink when they are thirsty. There is re- 
freshment in Jesus for souls that are hungry 
or weary or in want. 

Let us look at some examples of the way 
in which Jesus gives this refreshment. 

A soldier boy of nineteen lay in a crowded 
hospital after one of the battles of the late 
war. His arm had to be taken off, and he 
was sinking under the effects of the opera- 
tion. He had been hoping to return to the 
loved ones at home. But now that hope was 
given up. He must die in the hospital. The 
chaplain prayed with him, and asked him 
how he felt. " Happy, perfectly happy," 
was his answer. " God is with me when I 
pray, and blesses me." As he was dying, the 
chaplain was whispering to him about Jesus. 
" He is my Saviour ! He is my Saviour ! 
Oh, praise him ! praise him ! " and so he 



JESUS THE VINE. 247 

died. Ah! Jesus was a sheltering and re- 
freshing vine to that brave soldier boy! 

WANTING TO CONFESS. 

Some years ago, the wife of an American 
missionary was sitting on the veranda of her 
house in Burmah, at the close of the day. A 
native boy from the jungle came bounding 
through the opening in the hedge which 
served as a gateway. Coming up to her, he 
asked, with great eagerness, — 

" Does Jesus Christ live here ? " 

He was a boy about twelve years of age. 
His hair was matted with dirt, and bristled 
in every direction, like the quills of a porcu- 
pine. His clothing was dirty and ragged. 

" Does Jesus Christ live here ? " he asked 
again, as he crouched down at the lady's feet. 

" What do you want with Jesus Christ? " 
she asked. 

" I want to see him. I want to confess to 
him." 

" Why, what have you been doing, that 
you want to confess?" 



248 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

"Does he live here?" he continued very 
eagerly. U I want to know that. Doing? 
Why, I tell lies; I steal; I do every thing 
bad. I am afraid of going to hell! and I 
want to see Jesus Christ ; for I hear that he 
can help poor sinners and save them from 
hell. Does he live here ? Oh, tell me where 
I can find him ! " 

" But he does not help or save people who 
go on doing wicked things," said the lady. 

" I want to stop doing wickedly," said he, 
" but I can't stop. I don't know how to 
stop. The evil thoughts are in me, and the 
bad deeds come out of the evil thoughts. 
What can I do ? " 

"You cannot see Jesus Christ, my boy," 
said the lady ; " but I am here as his servant 
to speak for him." Then she began and told 
him about Jesus; how he died to save us; 
and how he gives his grace and spirit to help 
us. No poor man, ready to die from thirst, 
ever drank cold water more eagerly than this 
poor boy listened to what the missionary told 
him about Jesus. 



JESUS THE VINE. 249 

The next day the boy was taken into the 
mission school, as a wild Karen boy. And 
one so eager to learn they had seldom seen. 
Every day he came to the teacher with some 
new question about Jesus. And soon he 
learned how Jesus pardons the sins of his 
people, and gives them grace to keep them 
from sinning any more. He was baptized, 
lived a joyful, consistent life for a short time, 
and then died a happy, Christian death. 

This poor boy needed shelter and refresh- 
ment ; and when he came to Jesus, and sat 
under his shadow as the true vine, he found 
them both in him. 

HOW TO BE HAPPY. 

Everybody in this world is seeking for 
enjoyment or happiness, but very few take 
the right way to find it. 

There was once a famous king. He had 
great riches and honors; but he found, as 
many others had done before, that these 
things do not make people happy. He heard 
of an old man, famous for his wisdom and 



250 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

piety, who could tell what we must do, in 
order to be happy. So the king went to see 
him. He found him living in a very humble 
way, in a cave on the borders of a great wil- 
derness. 

" Holy father," said the king, " I have 
come to you to learn the great secret how I 
may be happy." 

The old man did not give him an imme- 
diate answer. But he rose, and walking out 
of the cave asked the king to follow him. 
He led him along a rough path till they came 
directly in front of a very high rock on the 
side of a mountain. On the top of that rock 
an eagle had built its nest. Pointing to that 
rock, the old man said, — 

" Tell me, O king, why has the eagle built 
its nest on yonder high rock ? " 

"No doubt," said the king, "the reason 
is that it wants to be out of the reach of 
danger." 

" True," exclaimed the wise man. " Then 
follow the example of the eagle. Build your 
nest, make your home in heaven. Then it 



JESUS THE VINE. 251 

will be safe beyond the reach of danger, and 
3 r ou will find peace and happiness all your 
days." 

Such was the old man's answer. And it 
was a very wise one. It is just what Jesus 
tells us, when he says, " Lay not up for your- 
selves treasures upon earth, where moth and 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break 
through and steal ; but lay up for yourselves 
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor 
rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not 
break through nor steal." 

Here is an illustration of the truth of the 
wise old man's advice to the king. We may 
call it 

THE HAPPY SHEPHERD BOY. 

This boy, though in very humble circum- 
stances, had learned to love and serve God. 
His nest was built in heaven, and it made 
him happy. He was watching his sheep one 
beautiful morning in spring. The sheep were 
feeding in a lovely valley between woody 
mountains, and the shepherd boy was singing 



252 THE SUN OF EIGHTEOUSNESS. 

and dancing for very joy. The prince of the 
country was hunting in that neighborhood. 
He watched the boy for a while, and then 
called him to him : " What makes you so 
happy, my good fellow?" 

The boy did not know the prince, and he 
replied : " Why shouldn't I be ha-ppy ? No 
king is richer than I am." 

" Ah, indeed. I'm glad to hear you are so 
well off. Now be pleased to tell me what it 
is that makes you so rich." 

" Well, you see, sir, the sun up yonder 
shines as brightly for me as it does for any 
king ; and the mountains and the valleys look 
as beautiful to me as they could do to a king. 
I would not give these two hands for all the 
gold and silver, nor these two eyes for all the 
brightest jewels owned by any king. Besides, 
I have every thing I really need. I have 
enough to eat every day, and good, warm 
clothing to wear, and I make money enough 
every year from my labor to meet all my 
wants. And then, better than all, I know 
that God is my friend, and he is preparing 



JESUS THE VINE. 253 

for me a home in heaven, better than any that 
can be found in this world. Don't you think, 
sir, I ought to be happy? " 

" Certainly you ought, my boy. No king 
can be richer than you are." 

It does one good just to think of such hap- 
piness as this. Yet this is what Jesus is 
ready to give to you and me. This is the 
refreshment we may find, if we come and sit 
under this shadow. The vine gives refresh- 
ment, and for this reason Jesus may be com- 
pared to it. 

But there is FRUiTFULisrESS in the vine ; 
and this is the third reason why Jesus may 
be compared to it. 

The vine is famous for its fruitfulness. 
"When we walk under an arbor in summer 
time and look at the vine which is growing 
over it, when we see how many bunches of 
grapes are hanging from the branches, when 
we remember that the branches which bear 
those many bunches all grow out of one 
stem, and that from that stem all the sap flows 
which supports and nourishes and ripens every 



254 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

grape upon the vine, and makes it so juicy 
and pleasant, then we can understand what 
the fruitfulness of the vine is. And Jesus 
may well be compared to a vine for this rea- 
son, because he is so fruitful himself in doing 
good, and because he makes his people so too. 

In the natural world, there are a great 
many vines. In the spiritual world, — that 
is, in the church, — there is only one. Jesus 
is this vine. And all the members of his 
church, in every part of the world, are 
branches of this one vine. This is what Je- 
sus means, when he says to his people, "I 
am the vine : ye are the branches." And all 
the power that Christian people have to do 
good, or to be fruitful, they owe to Jesus. 
Without him, we can do nothing that is good. 
But, when we are loving and serving him and 
trying to be like him, then he makes us fruit- 
ful, and helps us to do good in many ways. 
Jesus helps the very least and youngest of 
his people to do good in some way or other. 

A Sunday-school teacher was trying to 
make his class understand this lesson. 



JESUS THE VINE. 255 

" Jesus is the vine," said he : " we are the 
branches ; we get all our life and happiness 
from him." 

" Yes," said a little fellow in the class, 
" Jesus is the vine, grown-up people are the 
branches, and we young ones are the buds" 

In the natural vine, the buds do not bear 
any fruit. But in Jesus, the spiritual vine, 
even the buds can be fruitful ; the youngest 
can make themselves useful. 

BIBLE FIRST. 

About forty years ago, a business man sat 
at his fireside in this city. Near by him, 
playing on the floor, was his only child, a 
beautiful little boy. It was early in the 
morning. The day's work was not begun ; 
and, while waiting for his breakfast, the father 
took up the daily paper to read. The dear 
child came and climbed up on his father's 
knee, and, laying his hand gently on the 
paper, looked lovingly up into his face, and 
said : " No, no, papa ! Bible first. Bible 
first, papa." Very soon after, this dear child 



256 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

was taken sick, and died. As that father 
stood by the coffin in which his dead darling 
lay, and when he laid him in the cold grave, 
he seemed to hear his gentle voice repeating 
those simple words : " No, no, papa. Bible 
first." He never forgot those words. They 
were ringing in his ears all the time. He 
made them the rule of his life. He put the 
Bible first in his heart, in his home, in his 
business, in every thing. He prospered and 
grew very rich. He became a teacher and 
superintendent in the Sunday school. But in 
the use of his money, his time, his influence, 
and in every thing, he " put the Bible first." 
He bore much fruit, or did a great deal 
of good. And this may all be traced to his 
darling child, that little bud which opened 
so sweetly on Jesus, the true vine. The per- 
son referred to in this story was the late Mat- 
thew M. Baldwin, the well-known locomotive 
engine-builder. 

A GOOD SIGN. 

A boy and girl, who played a good deal 
together, both learned to love the Saviour. 



JESUS THE VINE. 257 

One day the boy said to his mother, " Mother, 
I know that Emma is a Christian." 

" What makes you think so ? " 

" Because, mother, she plays like a Chris- 
tian." 

" Plays like a Christian," said the mother; 
to whom this sounded very odd. " Why, 
what do vou mean?" 

"You see," said the child, "she used to 
be selfish and get angry at any little thing ; 
but now she is not selfish any more, and don't 
get angry if you take every thing she's got." 

You see that dear child had become a little 
bud or branch in the true vine, and this was 
making her fruitful in doing good. 

THE FAITHFUL PRAYER. 

Two families lived in one house, and each 
had a little boy about the same age : one was 
named John, and the other Willie. These 
boys slept together. Willie's mother was a 
Christian, and she taught him a prayer and 
some verses of Scripture, and told him to say 
them aloud every night before he went to 

17 



258 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

bed. The other boy, John, had never been 
taught to pray. Now when Willie came to 
sleep with John, he was very much tempted 
to jump into bed as John did, without saying 
his prayers or repeating his verses. But he 
had learned to obey his mother. He did so 
on this occasion, and see what good came of 
it. It pleased God to bless the prayers and 
verses that Willie repeated every night to his 
friend John. He was led in this way to 
think about these things, and to become a 
Christian. 

The two boys grew up to be men. They 
lived to be old men. They were earnest 
Christian men, and occupied honorable posi- 
tions under the government in Washington. 

The time came when John was to die. On 
his dying bed, he sent for his old friend Willie. 
He told him that it was his ^little prayer which 
he used to repeat with a verse of Scripture 
every night, when they were boys, which led 
him to become a Christian ; and with his 
dying lips he thanked him for his faithfulness 
in saying his prayers, as that had been the 



JESUS THE YINE. 259 

means of saving his soul. Willie was another 
little branch of the true vine, and we see 
how fruitful he was made. 

THE POWER OF KINDNESS. 

Some years ago, a neglected, ignorant boy- 
was brought into a Sabbath school in the city 
of Chicago. He knew so little that he could 
not even find the places when called for by 
the teacher. The other boys found them 
easily. This would have made the strange 
boy feel awkward and ashamed, and he prob- 
ably would not have gone back to the school 
again. But the teacher was quick-sighted 
and kind-hearted. He saw, in a moment, 
the boy's difficulty. In a quiet way, without 
calling attention to it, he turned the leaves 
to the lesson and the references. The boy 
was spared from feeling mortified. He was 
touched by the teacher's thoughtful kindness. 
He felt sure that he had a good friend in him. 
He kept on going to the school. He became 
a Christian and then a teacher. And now 
that poor, ignorant bo} r , saved by the thought- 



260 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

ful kindness of his teacher, is Mr. D. L. 
Moody, the evangelist, who has done so much 
good in the great cities of England and of this 
country. 

What a splendid bunch of rich, ripe fruit 
that teacher brought forth on the true vine, 
when he showed that little act of kindness to 
his new scholar ! 

One more story to show 

WHAT A LITTLE BOY CAN DO. 

" I wish, I wish, I wish," said a little boy, 
who awoke early one morning and lay in bed 
thinking, " I wish I was grown up, so as to 
do some good. If I was governor, I'd make 
good laws, or I'd be a missionary, or I'd get 
rich and give away lots of money to poor 
people. But I'm only a little boy, and it'll 
take me ever so many years to grow up." 
And then most boys and girls would have 
put off the thought of doing good till they 
were grown up. But it was not so with this 
little fellow. While dressing, he said to him- 
self, " Well, I know what I can do : I can 



JESUS THE VINE. 261 

he good, even if I can't do good." So, when 
he was dressed, he kneeled down, and asked 
God to help him be good and try to serve 
him with all his heart that day, and not forget. 
Then he went downstairs to finish his sums. 

No sooner was he seated with his clean 
slate before him, than his mother called him 
to run into the wood-house and see after his 
little brother. He did not want to leave 
his lesson, but he cheerfully said, " I'll go, 
mother," and away he ran. And how do 
you think he found " bubby " ? He had a 
sharp axe in his hand, and was saying, " I 
chop." The next moment his little toes 
might have been off, and the darling child 
made a cripple for life. 

As he was going on an errand for his 
mother, after breakfast, he saw a poor woman 
whose foot had slipped on the ice. She fell, 
and in falling had spilled her bag of beans 
and basket of apples ; and some thoughtless 
boys were snatching up her apples and run- 
ning away with them. The little fellow 
stopped, and said, "Aunty, let me pick up 



262 THE SUN OP RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

your beans and apples ; " and very soon his 
nimble fingers had helped her out of her 
trouble. He only thought of being kind ; he 
little knew how much his kindness comforted 
that poor woman. She thought of him after 
she got home, and prayed God to bless him. 

When he came home from school at night, 
he went to the cage and found his canary- 
bird dead. " O mother ! " he cried, " my 
dear birdie's dead ; and I tended him and 
loved him so, and he sang so sweetly ! " and 
then he burst into tears over his poor pet. 

" Who gave birdie's life and took it 
again?" asked his mother, stroking his head. 

" God," he answered, through his tears ; 
" and he knows best ; " and then he tried to 
wipe his tears away. 

A lady sat in the corner of the room. She 
had just lost a lovely babe ; and, though she 
knew it had taken angel wings and flown 
away to the heavenly home, she longed to 
have her birdie back in her own nest. But, 
when she saw this little boy's patience and 
submission to his Father in heaven, she said, 



JESUS THE VINE. 263 

" I'll try to trust him too, like this dear 
child." ' 

Her heart was touched, and she went 
home feeling comforted, and tried to be a 
better mother to the children that were left 
to her. 

This dear boy was a branch of the true 
vine, and was bearing sweet fruit. Let us 
all follow his example. Let us ask God, 
every day, to help us to be good, and then 
we shall find many ways in which we shall 
be able to do good. 

Jesus said, "I am the vine." We have 
seen that there are three things in a vine on 
account of which Jesus may well be compared 
to it. These are shelter, refreshment, and 
fruitfulness. May God make us all living 
branches of this heavenly vine, and help us 
to bear much fruit, for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



IX. 
JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 



IX. 

JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 

" And I will raise up for them a plant of renown." — Ezekiel 
xxxiv. 29. 

This refers to Jesus. It was one of the 
many promises or prophecies in which he 
was spoken of long before his birth. The 
prophet Ezekiel, who wrote these words, 
lived about six hundred years before the 
time of Christ. We have spoken of Jesus as 
" the Sun of Righteousness," as " the light 
of the world," as " the bright and morning 
star," as " the Saviour," as " the way, the 
truth, and the life," and as "the true vine." 
These were all rays from the Sun of Righte- 
ousness. They all, as we have seen, shed 
light on the character and work of Jesus, 
and help us in trying to understand what 
he is in himself and what he does for his 
people. 

And now we may take this passage from 



268 THE SUN OF KIGHTEOUSNESS. 

the prophecy of Ezekiel, as giving us another 
ray from the Sun of Righteousness. " I will 
raise up for them a plant of renown." 
Plants and trees are beautiful things. And 
every beautiful thing that God has made in 
this world is used in the Bible to teach us 
something about Jesus our glorious Saviour. 
Suns and stars, and rocks and fountains, and 
fruit and flowers, and gems and jewels, may 
all remind us of him. And then we have the 
trees of the forest brought in to help us in 
learning about Jesus. " I will raise up for 
them a plant of renown." The prophet 
Isaiah speaks of Jesus as " the stem of Jesse, 
and the branch that should grow out of his 
roots" (ch. xi. 1). In another place, he is 
spoken of as " the man whose name is 
the Branch " (Zech. vi. 12). He is also 
called " the righteous branch " (Jer. xxiii. 5), 
and this " branch " is said to be " beautiful 
and glorious " (Isa. iv. 2). And now we 
are to consider Jesus as the plant of re- 
nown. 

Renown, you know, means honor. How 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 269 

well this word may be applied to Jesus ! 
How renowned he was for the way in which 
he was born ! An angel from heaven came 
to tell beforehand about his birth, and a 
glorious choir of angels came to sing their 
anthem of gladness over the infant Saviour, 
as he lay cradled in the manger of Bethlehem. 
How renowned he was for his life of useful- 
ness, for his death of shame, suffered for our 
sins, for his resurrection from the grave, and 
his ascension into heaven ! And how re- 
nowned he is for the place he now occupies 
at the right hand of God! 

But I wish to speak of the renown that 
belongs to Jesus for what he is doing now, 
and what he has been doing ever since he 
went to heaven. Jesus is renowned for the 
great power he has to do three things. 

In the first place, he is renowned for the 
great power he has TO HEAL. 

One of the special names by which he is 
called in the Old Testament is " the Lord 
who healeth " (Exod. xv. 26). David said, 
" Bless the Lord, O my soul, who healeth 



270 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

all thy diseases" (Ps. ciii. 3). In another 
place, when he is speaking of God our 
Saviour, he says that " he healeth the broken 
in heart, and bindeth up their wounds ; " 
or, as the Prayer Book version of the 
Psalms says, "he giveth medicine to heal 
their sicknesses " (Ps. cxlvii. 3). In another 
place, David says, " He sent his word, and 
healed them " (Ps. cvii. 20). The prophet 
Jeremiah speaks of him as the physician who 
has the balm of Gilead for the purpose of 
healing the wounds of his people (Jer. viii. 
22). And, in another place, Jesus says to 
his people by this same prophet, " I will 
restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee 
of thy wounds " (Jer. xxx. 17). 

And when Jesus came into our world, he 
came as the Great Healer. He was renowned 
for many things that he did, but for nothing 
more than his power to heal. And so we 
read, you remember, that " Jesus went about 
all Galilee, preaching the gospel and healing 
all manner of disease and sickness among the 
people. And they brought unto him all sick 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 271 

people that were taken with divers diseases 
and torments, and those that were possessed 
with devils, and those that were lunatic, and 
those that had the palsy ; and he healed 
them" (Matt. iv. 23, 24). 

And, when Jesus went back to heaven, he 
left this wonderful power to heal with his 
apostles for a while. Thus we read in one 
place of multitudes of people, with different 
kinds of sickness, being brought to the Apostle 
Peter, and he healed them all. And, when 
they could not get close to him, they laid 
the beds and couches along the streets ; and 
even the shadow of Peter, as it passed over 
them, had power to heal (Acts v. 15, 16). 
And, in another place, we read how " God 
wrought special miracles by the hands of 
Paul," so that the handkerchiefs and aprons 
carried from him to the sick people healed 
them of their diseases (Acts xix. 11, 12). 
No man has the power of healing diseases in 
this miraculous way now. But all the power 
which certain medicines have to cure sickness, 
and all the skill which our best physicians 



272 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

have in using these medicines, we owe to 
Jesus. 

But it is especially of the power of Jesus 
to heal our spiritual diseases, the sickness of 
the soul that sin has caused, of which I desire 
to speak. Jesus is indeed " a plant of re- 
nown " in this respect. No earthly physician 
will engage to cure .every case of disease that 
can be brought to him. But Jesus is so re- 
nowned for his power to heal, that he is will- 
ing to undertake every case brought unto 
him, and pledges himself to cure all. 

Three of the most desperate sinners ever 
known in the world are mentioned in the 
Bible. One was Manassah, the wicked king 
of Israel. We read about his awful wicked- 
ness in 2 Kings 21. Another was the thief 
crucified together with Christ. The third 
was Saul of Tarsus, who cursed and swore at 
the followers of Jesus, and pursued them 
with cruel persecution even unto death. But 
Jesus healed all these desperate sinners, and 
made them loving, and gentle, and useful, 
and holy, and good. He may well be called 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN". 273 

" the plant of renown." He is indeed re- 
nowned for his power to heal all the diseases 
of the soul. 

THE SOUL DOCTOR. 

A minister had been visiting a poor sick 
woman for some time. One day, when he 
was going up the steps of the house, the sick 
woman's little girl saw him coming, and he 
heard her say, as she ran into her mother's 
room, "Here comes the doctor." He was 
surprised at this, for he thought she must 
know that he was a minister and not a 
doctor. 

After talking and praying with the sick 
woman, as he was going away, he said to 
the little girl : " Mary, my child, what did 
you mean by calling me a doctor? Don't 
vou know that I am a minister, and not a 
doctor?" 

Mary looked surprised and confused ; but, 
after considering it for a moment, she said, 
" You're our doctor, anyhow." 

18 



274 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" My dear, what makes you think I am a 
doctor?" he asked. 

" Because," she said, " mother has been 
sick a long time, and many doctors have been 
here, and I have had to go after ever so much 
medicine, but for all that mother didn't get 
any better. She used to be so sad ; and, 
when I looked at her, I always saw the tears 
in her eyes. But, since you've been coming, 
she has been growing better. Now she sings, 
and smiles, and looks so happy. I don't know 
what medicine you've got, but I know you've 
been a good doctor to mother." 

Now this minister had told this sick woman 
about Jesus, " the plant of renown." He had 
talked to her about his wonderful power to 
give rest to the weary, and health to the sick, 
and comfort to the sorrowing. She had 
prayed to Jesus for these great blessings. 
He had healed her soul's diseases. It was 
this which dried up her tears, and caused her 
to smile, and sing, and be happy. 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 275 
THE DYING SMUGGLER. 

A minister in Scotland had a church near 
the sea-coast, in a wild part of the country, 
where the people were very much scat- 
tered. 

One day, while taking a long walk to see 
some of his people who lived a great distance 
from the church, he saw a storm gathering. 
It was likely to burst upon him before he 
could reach the next cottage to which he was 
going. Not wishing to get wet, he looked 
around for some place of shelter. Presently 
he saw, not very far from him, an old build- 
ing that looked like a barn or stable. Walk- 
ing very quickly, he reached it before the 
storm burst, and went in. On entering it, he 
found, to his surprise, a number of men there. 
It proved to be the retreat of a band of smug- 
glers. These are men who live by breaking 
the laws of their country. After he had 
looked round for a while on that strange set 
of men, one of them came up to him and 
said : — 



276 THE SUN OF KIGHTEOTTSNESS. 

"Sir, are you not a minister of the gos- 
pel?" 

" I am, sir." 

" Well, sir, there's one of our poor fellows 
up in the loft, who is very ill and near death, 
we fear. Will you have the goodness to go 
and offer a prayer with him ? " 

" I will, very gladly." He climbed up a 
ladder into the loft. There, on a bed of 
straw, lay the poor sick man. The minister 
sat down upon an old stool by his side. The 
man was dying with consumption. He was 
wasted, and worn almost to a skeleton ; and 
it was clear that he had but a very short time 
to live. 

" My friend," said the minister, u you and 
I are strangers to each other. We have 
never met before. We shall never see each 
other again till we meet at the bar of God. 
Of course I can have no motive to say any 
thing to you but what I believe to be the 
truth. Now, if I should tell you that I had 
in my pocket a medicine that I was sure 
would cure you of your sickness and make 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 277 

you well again, would you believe me and 
take that medicine ? " 

" I would, most gladly," said the sick man. 

" Well, my friend, I have no such medicine 
to heal the sickness of your body," replied the 
minister. " But I have a medicine that will 
most certainly heal the diseases which sin 
has brought upon your soul, and make it fit 
to enter heaven. I will not trouble you with 
any words of mine. Listen, while I tell you 
what God has said about this in his own 
blessed book. And, while you listen, believe 
the words that you hear, and they will save 
your soul." Then the minister began, slowly 
and clearly, to quote, in the hearing of the 
dying man, such passages of Scripture as 
these : " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and thou shalt be saved." " The blood of 
Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." " He is 
able to save, unto the uttermost, all that 
come unto God through him." " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." " Him that 
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." 



278 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" For God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." 

While the minister was repeating these 
precious words of God, he saw a great change 
pass over the face of the dying smuggler. 
The look of sorrow and despair passed away, 
and a look of calm, quiet peace, of hope and 
joy, took the place of it. Raising himself on 
that bed of straw, with his hand lifted up, he 
exclaimed, " I believe it," and immediately 
fell back and died. 

Oh, surely that blessed Jesus who can heal 
and save poor, dying sinners in this way, may 
well be called " the plant of renown " ! He is 
renowned for his power to heal or save. 

But, in the second place, Jesus is renowned 
for his power to COMFORT. 

If we were travelling through a hot, sandy 
desert, we should be sure to suffer much 
from thirst. And the one thing that we 
should need above all others would be plenty 
of clear, cool water to drink. And, after 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 279 

journeying all day in the heat of the scorch- 
ing sun, when we came to pitch our tents 
and stop for the night, if we could always 
encamp by the side of a fountain of good 
water, what a comfort that would be to us ! 
Now this world may well be compared to 
such a desert. We are like travellers passing 
through it. As we go on in our journey of 
life, we meet with a great many trials. And 
just as the heat of the desert makes travellers 
thirsty, and causes them to long for water, so 
these trials make us sad and sorrowful ; and 
then we long for something that will be a 
comfort to our troubled souls, just as cold 
water would be to our bodies when thirsty. 
We need a fountain to which we can always 
turn for comfort under our troubles. But, 
unless we come to Jesus, we never shall find 
such a fountain. Jesus is the only fountain 
of real comfort in the world. If we learn to 
know and love him, we shall have a fountain 
of comfort that will go with us everywhere. 
How sweet the words which Jesus himself 
spoke on this very point ! " The water 



280 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

that I will give him shall be in him, a well 
of water springing up into everlasting life " 
(John iv. 14). We think it a great blessing 
to have a spring of good water in our orchard, 
or meadow, or garden, or near the door of our 
house. And so it is. But now think what 
a wonderful thing it would be to have a 
spring or fountain in our own hearts ; a foun- 
tain, not of water for the body merely, but of 
comfort for the soul ; a fountain that never 
dries up, and that will go with us wherever 
we go ! He who can open such a fountain 
in the hearts of his people may well be called 
" renowned" He is renowned for his power 
to comfort. Now, let us take some illustra- 
tions of the way in which Jesus comforts his 
people. 

THE FATHER'S FACE. 

A certain Sunday school was preparing for 
an entertainment, in which some of the schol- 
ars were to speak short pieces. In practisiug 
for this occasion, a little girl named Bessie, 
only five years old, was placed on the plat- 



JESUS THE PLANT OF BENOTVN. 281 

form to speak her piece. She began very 
nicely. But very soon she stopped, looked 
all round the building, and seemed greatly 
troubled. Then her lips began to quiver, 
and her little frame shook with sobs. Her 
father stepped out from behind a pillar where 
he had been watching her, and taking her in 
his arms said : " Bessie darling, what's the 
matter ? I thought my little girl knew the 
verses so well." 

" So I do, papa ; but I couldn't see you. 
Let me stand where I can look right into your 
face, and then I won't be afraid." 

How beautiful this was ! And this is just 
what Jesus does for us if we are trying to 
serve him. He puts us " where we can look 
right into his face " at all times. And in that 
face there is nothing but goodness, and love, 
and tenderness towards us. What a comfort 
this is ! 

god's hidden ones. 

The Rev. Dr. Robinson, of the Presbyte- 
rian Church, tells this story. It occurred in 



282 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

his own ministry. I never met with any- 
thing that more strikingly illustrates the 
wonderful power of Jesus to comfort his 
people. 

While seeking scholars for his Sunday 
school one day, he found a poor woman, who 
was living in a closet. It might well be 
called so ; for it was a little room, opening 
into another room, — a room so small that it 
could only hold a single bed, with a chair 
and a little table by the side of it. The only 
light in the room came through three panes 
of glass over the door that opened into the 
larger room. On the bed in this dark closet 
lay a woman who was crippled with rheuma- 
tism. She could not sit up, nor dress her- 
self, nor help herself to the least thing, nor 
even change her position in the bed without 
assistance. The people who lived in the 
adjoining room, and took the little care of 
her that was taken, were not her relatives. 
They did not know to whom she belonged. 
All they knew about her was that every 
little while some one called and left a small 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 283 

sum of money to pay for the expense of 
keeping her in that closet. She had lived 
there, in just the same way, for fourteen 
years. Once, in all that time, she had been 
lifted out of that little room for a short time. 
That was eight years before Doctor Robinson 
first met with her. There, in that dark 
closet, with no books to read, with no air fit 
to breathe, with no power to help herself, 
with no physician to give her any medicine, 
with no friend to show her any kindness, 
and with miserable food, she had lived on 
through all those years. And yet, when the 
doctor expressed his surprise, she said, " She 
had had all she really needed " 

Doctor R. found that she was a Christian 
woman, and had belonged to the Episcopal 
Church, but she never would tell him where 
she had formerly lived. 

" My friend," said Doctor R., " has no 
minister ever visited j^ou during all this time, 
to talk to you about Jesus ? " 

"No minister ever knew where I was, 
sir." 



284 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" Have you given up your faith and hope 
in Jesus?" 

" Oh, no, sir ! for that has been all my 
comfort" 

" Have you ever thought that God had 
forgotten you? " 

" I never doubted him, sir; but once, after 
I had been very ill, I felt sorry because he 
did not let me die then." 

" I offered," says Doctor R., " to do any 
thing for her in my power ; but she declined 
all my offers. She said her case was incur- 
able, and she had learned not to want any 
thing more than what she had." He talked 
to her about Jesus, and prayed with her, for 
which she was very thankful. He visited 
her often, and kept a kind of watch over her ; 
but she never would tell him any thing fur- 
ther about herself. And, when he visited 
her, she never wanted him to talk about any 
thing else but the love and grace of Jesus. 

" Remembering how much Episcopalians 
are attached to their Prayer Book," says the 
doctor, " I committed to memory two or 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 285 

three of the collects from that book, that I 
might use them in my prayer, as the little 
room was too dark to see to read. The next 
time I went there, I introduced these col- 
lects into my prayer. She recognized the 
first sentence with almost a start of surprise. 
Then she began to join in the prayers with 
me ; and, when I finished, she was sobbing 
aloud, and humble, grateful tears were stream- 
ing down her cheeks." 

Shortly after this, she died. Some un- 
known person came and paid the expense of 
her funeral, and so she passed away. But 
could any thing show the wonderful power 
of Jesus to comfort his people more than 
such a case as this ? Through all those long, 
dark years, the thought of Jesus, with his love 
and grace, was the one thing that cheered 
and comforted this poor sufferer. She was 
one of the jewels of Jesus. He was polishing 
her, and making her fit to shine in his crown 
of glory at last. And how beautifully she 
will shine in heaven! 

Jesus may well be called " the plant of 



286 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

renown." The second thing for which he is 
renowned is his power to comfort. 

But there is a third thing for which he is 
renowned, and that is his power to BLESS. 

This is the special work of Jesus. He 
came into our world on purpose to bless it. 
When God first told about his coming to 
Abraham, he said that "all the nations of 
the earth should be blessed in him." As all 
the water in the world comes from the ocean, 
and all the light in the world comes from the 
sun, so all the blessing in the world comes 
from Jesus. 

Let me give you some samples of the kind 
of people that Jesus, this " plant of renown," 
makes, when they feel his power to bless. 
And you will see in a moment that, when 
our world comes to be filled with people of 
this sort, it will be a blessed world indeed. 

A NOBLE ANSWER. 

Some years ago, a negro boy about sixteen 
or seventeen years of age, who was a slave, 
but who had learned to know and love Jesus, 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 287 

was put up for sale In one of the West India 
Islands. A kind master, who pitied his con- 
dition, and did not want him to fall into the 
hands of a cruel owner, went up to him and 
said : — 

" Sambo, if I buy you, will you be 
honest?" 

With a look that I have no power to 
describe, says the gentleman, the boy re- 
plied : — 

" Massa, I will be honest, whether you 
buy me or not." 

That was a noble answer. No prince, no 
king, no angel from heaven, could have given 
a better one. 

MAKE MOTHER HAPPY. 

" Mother's cross," said Maggie, coming 
into the kitchen, with a pout on her lips. 
Her aunt was busy ironing, but she looked 
up and said : " Then this is the very time for 
you to be pleasant and helpful. Mother was 
awake nearly all night with the baby." 

Maggie made no reply. She put on her 



288 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

hat, and walked off into the garden. But a 
new idea went with her. She was trying to 
be a Christian. Thinking of her aunty's 
words, she said to herself: " The very time 
to be helpful and pleasant is when other 
people are cross. Now's the time for me to 
try to be useful. I remember, when I was 
sick last year, I was so nervous that if any 
one spoke to me I could hardly help being 
cross. But mother never got angry or out of 
patience. She was as gentle as could be 
with me. I ought to pay it back now, and I 
will." 

Then, lifting up her heart in prayer to God 
for help, she sprang from the grass where she 
had thrown herself down, and went into the 
house. Her mother was minding the baby, 
who was teething and very fretful. Maggie 
brought the pretty ivory bells, and began to 
jingle them for the little one. He stopped 
fretting and began to smile. 

" Couldn't I take him out to ride in his 
carriage, mother, — it is such a nice morn- 
ing?" she asked. 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 289 

" I should be very glad if you would," said 
her mother. 

The little hat and sack were brought, and 
baby was soon ready for the ride. 

" I will keep him out as long as I can," 
said Maggie ; " and you please lie down on 
the sofa, mother dear, and take a nap while 
I am gone. You look very tired." 

These kind, thoughtful words of Maggie, 
and the kiss that went with them, were almost 
too much for the mother. Tears filled her 
eyes, and her voice trembled as she said, 
" Thank you, my darling, it will do me a 
world of good if you will keep him out an 
hour ; for my head aches badly this morning, 
and the air will do him good too." 

How happy Maggie felt as she was trun- 
dling the little carriage up and down the 
walk ! She was denying herself, and trying 
to be like Jesus, " who went about doing 
good." And it always makes us happy to do 
this. And then she made the baby happy 
and her mother happy. And this is the way 

in which Jesus, "the plant of renown," shows 

19 



290 THE STJN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

his power to bless people. Suppose we were 
all trying to deny ourselves, and do good as 
little Maggie was : what blessings we should 
be wherever we went, and how happy our 
homes would be ! 

THE YOUNG MINER'S DEATH. 

Some time since, the noise of an explosion 
was heard in an English coal-pit. Those who 
heard the dreadful sound knew what it was. 
They knew at once that a fire was raging, 
and the suffering and death it would bring 
to the poor miners. Crowds of anxious rela- 
tives and friends hurried to the mouth of the 
pit to seek their loved ones. Soon they began 
to bring up the dead and wounded from the 
mine ; and sobs, and cries, and shrieks were 
heard from those who discovered their suffer- 
ing relatives. There was a poor widow in 
this crowd, whose only son was a worker in 
that mine. He was a good, Christian boy, 
the chief support and comfort of his mother. 
Presently she was seen pushing her way 
through the crowd, with sobs and tears as 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 291 

she cried : " That's my dear lad's voice ! 
Where art thou, my child ? " And, when 
she reached him, he said : " Mother, what 
will you do now? "for he felt that he was 
dying. She said : u I will trust in God : can 
you trust him, Jimmy ? " 

" Yes," said he, " God is by my side : Jesus 
is with me." 

She stooped down to kiss him ; but, as she 
did so, the skin of his poor, burnt face peeled 
off on her lips. 

" The Lord be with you, my boy," she 
said. 

"Thank God," he replied, "that this is 
not the unquenchable fire. Jesus is with me, 
and heaven is my home. You'll meet me 
there, won't you, mother?" 

" Yes, my lad : I set out for heaven years 
ago, and I hope to meet you there." 

Then the poor lad was carried towards his 
mother's house, but before reaching it he 
died. The last faint words heard from his 
lips were, " Heaven is my home." 

Now there is nothing in all the world that 



292 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

could have had power to bless that poor 
dying boy and his bereaved and sorrowing 
mother as Jesus, " the plant of renown," did. 
They knew him and they trusted him ; and 
in the most trying circumstances they felt his 
power to bless them. 

BONNIE CHRISTIE. 

Two boys were in a school-room alone by 
themselves. One of them, named Bonnie 
Christie, was trying to follow Jesus ; the 
other, whose name was Sandy Dawson, had 
no thought or care about religion. They 
had some fireworks with them ; and, con- 
trary to the teacher's command, Sandy Daw- 
son set some of them off. 

As soon as school opened, the teacher 
called them both up, to ask about the fire- 
works. 

" Sandy, did you set off those fireworks ? " 

" No, sir," was the answer. 

" Bonnie, was it you who did it?" But 
he refused to say either yes or no. So the 
teacher gave him a severe flogging for being, 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 293 

as he thought, both disobedient and obsti- 
nate. 

At recess, when the two boys were to- 
gether, Sandy Dawson said to his friend, — 

" Bonnie, why didn't you deny it ? " 

" Because, Sandy, as there were only two 
of us in the school, at the time, it would 
have been plain that one of us was lying 
about it." 

" Then why didn't you say I did it ? " 

" Because you had already said you didn't, 
and I didn't want to fasten the lie on you." 

Sandy melted right down under this. As 
soon as recess was over, and school began 
again, he marched straight up to the teach- 
er's desk, and said, " Please, sir, I can't bear 
to think that I told a lie, and that Bonnie 
Christie was punished for it. It was I that 
set off the fireworks ; " and then he burst 
into tears. 

As the teacher looked on Sandy, making 
this frank, honest confession, and thought 
how wrong he had been in punishing Bonnie, 
his conscience smote him, and his eyes filled 



294 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

with tears. He took hold of Sandy Dawson's 
hand, and before all the school they walked 
together down to where Bonnie Christie sat, 
and there, with a great deal of feeling, he 
said, — 

" Bonnie, Bonnie, my lad, Sandy and I beg 
your pardon. We were both to blame." 

The school was hushed and still, for who 
can help being quiet when any thing good, 
and true, and noble is being done ? It was 
so still that you might have heard Bonnie's 
big boy tears drop, one by one, on his copy- 
book, as he sat there, enjoying the threefold 
victory he had gained, — the victory over 
himself, the victory over his schoolmate, and 
over his teacher too. He was at a loss what 
to say, and so he gently said, " Teacher for 
ever." And the boys took it up, and gave 
a good loud, " Hurrah for our teacher ! " And 
then they made the school-house ring again, 
with their hearty and united " Hurrah for 
Bonnie Christie ! " 

Oh, what a blessing it will be to the world 
when boys and girls, and men and women, 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 295 

learn to act towards each other as Bonnie 
Christie acted towards Sandy Dawson! 

I have one more story. It is about a 
speech made in meeting, by an old colored 
woman, whose name was Sarah. She was 
trying to show that the best way of over- 
coming evil was by doing good. But she 
compared the evil things we are tempted to 
do to devils, and the good things by which 
we must overcome them to angels. And 
this was 



old sarah's speech, 



" My frens, this yer way of fighting devils 
with devils a'n't jess the thing. Some one 
gets angry, and then you get angry too : that 
ain't no way. Now I tried fighting one devil 
against another in that way, ever so long ; 
but it did no good. Devils don't want to 
kill devils: they only help each other on. 
If I gets envious because somebody's proud, 
who gets hurt, I'd like to know ? Not the 
devil, you may reckon, sure. But now I 
fights angels 'gainst devils ; and the angels 



296 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

is always sure to beat. When anybody says 
something bad about me, I jess says : ' Now, 
angels, good angels, I don't know how many 
of you I shall want to help me, but you must 
stand by me till this thing is through with, 
'cause I must conquer.' And when I gets 
insulted, and the blood flies up above my 
eyes, I says, 4 Angels, be quick, and over- 
come the devils that's rushing in.' And they 
always do help. God had twelve legions for 
Jesus, and he has as much as a dozen for you 
and me any time. The angels is the strong- 
est. The right makes 'em strong. There be 
more for us than there be against us. I tell 
ye, all we want is our eyes opened to see 
some of these yer angel folks, filling all the 
hills, jess as they did in Elisha's time. There 
a'n't any thing they are afraid of, because 
they know God is in them, and for them. 
And we'll get that strong some day. 

"I 'spect dis yer world is mighty full of 
angels ; and I jess do hope you'll call on 
them to fight your battles for you. What 
they got to do but to help us ? They doesn't 



JESUS THE PLANT OF RENOWN. 297 

want to waste their time any more than we 
do, jess singin'. They's trained to do God's 
work for him ; and that's what they's round 
yer for." 

And it will be the most blessed victory 
this world has ever known, when all the 
people in it learn to overcome evil with good 
in this way. And this is what Jesus, " the 
plant of renown," was raised up to help us 
to do. He is a plant of renown, indeed ! He 
is renowned, as we have seen, for his power 
to do three things : these are to heal, to com- 
fort, and to bless. 

How thankful we should be that this re- 
nowned plant has been raised up for us ! Let 
us all pray to him that he may heal and 
comfort and bless us. 

And, then, let us try to send the knowl- 
edge of this plant of renown to others, that 
they also may be healed and comforted and 
blessed ! 

"I WILL RAISE UP FOR THEM A PLANT 
OF RENOWN." 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 



X. 

JESUS THE SHIELD. 
" / am thy shield." — Genesis xv. 1. 

These were God's words to Abraham. 
And the God who spake to the patriarchs 
and prophets in the Old Testament is our 
Saviour Jesus who speaks to us in the New 
Testament. And so this Old Testament 
saying about a shield refers to Jesus. He is 
the shield here spoken of. This is still another 
ray from the " Sun of Righteousness." 

"I am thy shield." A shield was used in 
time of danger. And Abraham was in dan- 
ger when these words were spoken to him. 
He had a nephew named Lot. They had 
lived together for a long time. At last their 
families became so large that they thought it 
better to separate. They did so. Lot and 
his family went to live in one of the cities of 



302 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Sodom and Gomorrah. This, of course, was 
before the destruction of those cities by fire. 
Then that country was very different from 
what it is now. It was a rich, fertile, well- 
watered country. The Bible says it was 
" like the garden of the Lord " (Gen. xiii. 
10). So Lot went to live there. 

At that time, there was a very powerful 
king in Canaan, whose name was Chedorlao- 
mer. He was the Napoleon Bonaparte of his 
day. He had conquered all the kings of that 
country, and made them pay tribute or taxes 
to him. Among those he had subdued were 
the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. They 
had paid this tribute for a number of years. 
At last they were tired of it, and sent him 
word that they were not willing to pay any 
more tribute. This made Chedorlaomer very 
angry. So he raised a large army and marched 
down to Sodom and Gomorrah, to punish the 
rebellious kings and people. A great battle 
was fought. Chedorlaomer gained the vic- 
tory. He conquered the kings of that country, 
got possession of their cities, took numbers of 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 303 

the people captive, and with a large amount 
of spoil started on his march for home. 

Among the prisoners taken on this occa- 
sion were Lot, Abraham's nephew, and his 
family. As soon as Abraham heard of it, 
he resolved to try to rescue him. Abraham 
had a large household. He was a sort of 
sheik or chief. So he gathered together all 
his servants, and the men who were accus- 
tomed to work f(fr him. They made a com- 
pany of over three hundred men. Abraham 
armed them, put himself at their head as 
captain, and marched quickly after the victo- 
rious army. He overtook them before they 
reached home, and came upon them suddenly. 
Never dreaming of any pursuit or attack, 
they were feeling perfectly secure. It was 
night when Abraham came up to them. 
Some were sleeping, some eating and drink- 
ing, and some dancing and feasting. Abra- 
ham divided his company into three bands. 
Approaching from different points, at a given 
signal they rushed down upon that careless 
multitude like an avalanche. Terror and con- 



304 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

fusion seize upon them. They scatter like 
frightened sheep and flee. Multitudes are 
killed. The captives and the spoil are all 
recovered ; and, without the loss of a man, 
that little band of heroes march back in tri- 
umph to their homes. 

And just here arose the danger to which 
Abraham was now exposed. That scattered 
army would soon rally from their flight. 
They would inquire what ^mighty host had 
come upon them so suddenly. And when 
they came to find how they had been fright- 
ened out of their wits, and out of their pris- 
oners and property too, by a mere handful 
of men under the command of Abraham the 
Hebrew, they would be vexed and angry with 
themselves, and still more angry with him. 
They would be very likely to say, " Now 
come on ; let us gather our forces together, 
and go down and thrash that impudent fel- 
low's life out of him. We'll teach him a 
lesson that he won't be likely to forget very 
soon." This would have been the most 
natural thing in the world under those cir- 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 305 

cumstances. Abraham saw the danger and 
feared it. God saw that he was afraid, and 
so he came to him and said, — 

44 Fear not, Abraham ; I am thy shield." 
He meant by saying this to teach him that 
he would protect him from this danger. He 
was able to do this, and he did it. He has 
the hearts of all men in his hands, and he can 
make them do just what he wishes to have 
done. If Chedorlaomer had formed the plan 
of going after Abraham and punishing him, 
God kept him from carrying out that plan. 
And so he was Abraham's shield. 

"lam thy shield" These are the words 
that Jesus speaks to all his people. No one 
can do so much for our protection as he can. 
And so the subject we have now to consider 
is Jesus the shield of his people. He is the 
best shield. 

We may speak of three reasons why this is 
the best shield. It is so, in the first place, 
because it is so large. 

The shields which the warriors had in old 
times were not large enough to cover the 

20 



306 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

whole body. If a soldier held up his shield 
so as to cover his head, he would leave the 
lower part of his body uncovered. If he 
tried to protect that part of his body, then 
he must leave his head uncovered. And even 
if the shield had been large enough to cover 
his body from head to foot, still it would only 
protect him on one side at a time. While he 
was holding the shield in front of him, he 
might be wounded from behind. While any 
part of the body is left unprotected, we never 
can tell how soon danger and death may come 
through that very part. 

We read about a celebrated Grecian war- 
rior in old times, whose name was Achilles. 
It was said of him that his body was protected 
all over from head to foot, so that there was 
no place in which it was possible for him to 
be wounded except in one of his heels. Now 
we should think that, under such circum- 
stances, a man would be pretty safe. And 
yet the story says that, while engaged in 
fighting one day, Achilles was wounded by 
a poisoned arrow in that very place, and died 
of the wound in his heel. 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 307 

But, when Jesus becomes our shield, he is 
the best shield, because he can cover us all 
over. He can protect, at the same time, both 
head and heart, and hands and feet, and body 
and soul, and home and family, and all that 
belongs to us. We see this clearly illustrated 
in the first chapter of the book of Job. 
There God is talking with Satan about Job. 
God praises him for being such a good man. 
And Satan said : " No wonder he is good, 
because he is so well taken care of. Hast 
thou not made a hedge about him, and about 
his house, and about all that he hath on every 
side ? " 

This was true of Job, and it is equally true 
of all who love and serve God. And if we 
put the word " shield " in place of the word 
"hedge," we shall see how beautifully the 
words of Satan illustrate this first point of 
our subject. " Hast thou not put a shield 
about him, and about his house, and about all 
that he has on every s-ide ? " 

And when we see how wonderfully Jesus 
can make use of any thing that he pleases, in 



308 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

order to protect the lives and property and 
happiness of his people, we see how well he 
may say to any one, as he did to Abraham, 
" I am thy shield." 

Let us look at some illustrations of the 
ways in which he sometimes protects his 
people. 

A FRIENDLY WARNING. 

A party of workmen were engaged in the 
Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts. One day, 
as they were resting during the hour ap- 
pointed for their noon-day meal, they saw a 
number of rats run by where they were sit- 
ting. They all rose at once, and ran after 
the rats. While they were doing this, a 
great mass of rocks fell to the ground, just 
where they had been sitting. They would 
have been crushed to death, if God had not 
been a shield to them, and had employed the 
rats for their protection. He who can save 
men in this way may well be called a shield. 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 309 



SAVED BY PRAYER. 

In the winter of 1873, there was a terrible 
explosion of a steam-boiler in the city of 
Pittsburg. A number of persons were killed, 
and many more wounded. But there was 
one life preserved in a very singular way, as 
if on purpose to show how God can make 
use of any thing he pleases, in order to shield 
his people from harm. This singular circum- 
stance occurred to the wife of one of the men 
who was working in the mill where the 
explosion took place. She was in her own 
house, busy with her usual household duties, 
when she heard the noise of the explosion. 
All at once she felt an unusual desire to pray. 
In a moment, she fell on her knees and began 
to pray. While she was thus engaged, a 
large piece of the boiler which had just ex- 
ploded, weighing about two hundred pounds, 
came crashing through the room, and passed 
directly by the place where her head would 
have been, if she had not been kneeling 
down in prayer. That prayer saved her life. 



310 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Surely he may well be called the best shield, 
who can protect the lives of his people in 
such strange ways as this ! 

THE LORD'S WALL. 

One winter night, many years ago, the 
inhabitants of the town of Sleswick, in Den- 
mark, were thrown into great alarm. A 
hostile army was marching down upon them, 
and the people were greatly afraid of the 
soldiers. 

In a large cottage on the outskirts of the 
town lived an aged grandmother with her wid- 
owed daughter and grandson. This grand- 
mother was a good Christian woman. Before 
going to bed that night, she prayed earnestly 
that God would, in the language of an old 
hymn, " build a wall of defence about them." 

Her grandson asked her why she offered a 
prayer like that ; for she certainly could not 
expect God to do any such thing. She told 
him she did not mean a real, literal stone 
wall, but that he would be their shield and 
protect them. 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 311 

At midnight, the soldiers were heard com- 
ing, tramp, tramp, tramping into the town. 
They filled most of the houses in the town. 
But no one came to the widow's cottage. 
When the morning dawned, the reason of 
this was plainly seen. The snow had drifted, 
and made a wall in front of the widow's cot- 
tage, so that it was almost hidden, and no 
one could get near it. 

" There, my son," said the grandmother, 
" don't you see how God has made a wall 
about us, and shielded us from danger?" 

THE SQUIRREL AND THE ROBBER. 

A Christian gentleman once kept a tame 
squirrel, which was a great pet with him. 
Bunnie had the freedom of the house, and 
was allowed to go about everywhere and do 
as he pleased. In the winter time> he was 
very fond of making his bed at night in the 
side pocket of his master's coat that was 
hung up behind the door in the sitting-room. 
He would get a little bunch of tow from his 
own cage, climb up the door on which the 



312 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

nail stood, run down the coat, spread out his 
tow-bed, and have the cosiest kind of a nest 
for a cold night. 

Now you would scarcely think that the 
great God, who rules among the angels in 
heaven, would make use of a little squirrel 
to shield his servant from harm. But he did. 

It happened in this way. One night, a 
robber stole into that house, when the family 
were all asleep. He made his way into the 
sitting-room. There he saw the gentleman's 
private desk, in which he supposed was the 
money that he wished to steal. If he could 
only find the keys of the desk, it would save 
him a great deal of trouble. Looking round 
the room, he saw the coat hanging behind 
the door. Perhaps the keys are there. He 
thrust his hand into the pocket to feel for 
them. This wakened bunnie. Not liking to 
be disturbed, he seized the robber's finger, 
and made his sharp teeth meet in the flesh 
of it. The pain of the bite caused the robber 
to utter a loud cry. This wakened the owner 
of the house. He rushed downstairs with 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 313 

the poker in his hand, and made a prisoner 
of the robber before he had time to escape. 

And the God who can protect the lives 
and property of his people in such a way 
as this may well be called a shield. He can 
make use of the most unlikely thing, — an 
angel, a man, a snow-storm, a dog, a rat, a 
squirrel, or any thing he pleases, in order to 
protect his people. This is the best shield, 
because it is so large. 

" I am thy shield." This is the best shield, 
secondly, because it is SO SATE. 

The right word to use here would be the 
word impenetrable. But this is too big a 
word to use here. And yet it expresses the 
very thing in a shield that makes it valuable. 
Impenetrable means something that you can- 
not get through. In old times, when a sol- 
dier was engaged in fighting, if- his enemy 
raised his sword to strike, he would lift up 
his shield to turn aside the blow. And so, 
when an arrow was shot at him, or a spear 
thrust at him, he would try to ward them off 
with his shield. But, if his shield were made 



314 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

of paper, or pasteboard, or light wood, or tin, 
or even if it were covered with a thin sheet 
of brass or iron, it would not be safe. A 
heavy blow from a sword, or spear, or arrow, 
would go through it. And so, since the 
invention of gunpowder, shields are not used 
any more, because they cannot be made light 
enough for a soldier to carry, and yet solid 
enough to prevent a rifle-ball from going 
through. Indeed, it is impossible to make a 
shield now of any kind that cannot be pene- 
trated. Why, even when we cover the sides 
of our ships-of-war with plates of solid iron, 
four and five inches thick, they are not safe : 
they are not impenetrable. A cannon-ball 
can be sent with such force as to go crashing 
through them. But, when Jesus becomes our 
shield, we are entirely safe. He is a shield 
that nothing can penetrate, or get through. 

This is what God means, when he says 
to his people, by the prophet Isaiah, "No 
weapon that is formed against you shall pros- 
per'' (Isa. liv. 17). And this is what David 
means, when, speaking of the care that God 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 315 

takes of his people, he says : " He shall cover 
thee with his feathers, and under his wings 
shalt thou trust ; his truth shall be thy shield 
and buckler" (Ps. xci. 4). 

Now let us look at some illustrations of the 
way in which God's people find safety under 
this shield. There is the case of the good 
Hezekiah, of whom we read in the Bible. 
The king of Assyria came with a great army, 
and besieged him in Jerusalem. He threat- 
ened to take Hezekiah prisoner, and destroy 
Jerusalem. Hezekiah could not help him- 
self, so he prayed to God for help. God 
sent him word by the prophet Isaiah that he 
would be his shield, and would defend him 
and his city. In the night, God sent an angel 
against the Assyrians. He smote one blow 
with his invisible sword. In the morning, 
there were one hundred and eighty-five thou- 
sand dead men'in the Assyrian camp. Heze- 
kiah had the best shield stretched out for his 
protection. He was safe under that shield. 



316 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



THE PERSECUTOR'S DEATH. 

A Wesleyan minister, whose name was 
Stewart, was appointed to preach in a wild, 
mountainous part of Ireland, in which were 
many Roman Catholics. Some of these men 
were very bitter in their feelings towards the 
Protestants. One night, this good minister 
was preaching in the house of a farmer, when 
a very violent Romanist who was present 
interrupted him several times. After the 
meeting broke up, with a dreadful oath he 
swore he would kill the minister before he 
crossed the mountain the next day, as he un- 
derstood he was going over in the morning 
to preach in another place. 

In the morning, the minister rose early to 
get a good start on his journey. The farmer's 
wife begged him not to go, on account of the 
man who had threatened to kill him. He 
said : — 

" No, I must go. The Lord is my shield, 
and he can take care of me." After lifting 
up his heart in prayer, he started. 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 317 

He had passed over the top of the moun- 
tain, and was descending on the other side, 
when he saw two men standing in the road. 
As he came near them, they seemed to be 
much excited. 

" What's the matter, my friends ? " he 
asked. They pointed to a man who was 
dying by the side of the road, and said: — 

" About fifteen minutes before you ap- 
peared in sight, that man came to this place. 
We were digging turf in the field. We saw 
him stagger and fall. We ran to his assist- 
ance ; but when we came up to him he was 
dead." 

The minister looked at him, and said : — 

" Last night that man swore a dreadful 
oath that he would kill me before I crossed 
this mountain. Poor fellow ! he had come 
here, I suppose, to carry out his oath." 

"Well," said the men, "he will kill no 
one now." 

This good minister trusted to the best 
shield, and we see how safe it kept him. 

We have a very good illustration of the 



318 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

safety found in this best shield in an incident 
that occurred in the life of our great and 
good Washington. When he was a young 
man, and only a colonel in the army, he went 
with the brave General Braddock, who was 
commanding a small English army that was 
to march through Pennsylvania for the relief 
of Fort Du Quesne, situated where the flour- 
ishing city of Pittsburg now stands. 

That army had nearly reached the end of 
its march, when they fell into an ambush 
that had been laid for them by the Indians. 
There was a narrow pass near the edge of a 
forest through which the army had to march. 
A large body of Indians had hid themselves 
in the trees around this pass. When the 
army was in the middle of this pass, they 
were startled by a volley of muskets being 
fired right into the midst of them. They 
halted where they stood. They were brave 
men, ready to face any enemy. But how 
could they fight an invisible foe ? The firing 
was kept up. The men were mowed down 
like grass, without being able to help them- 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 319 

selves. Well, the end of it was, you know, 
that army was defeated and driven back. 
Before this took place, however, General 
Braddock was killed, and nearly all the prin- 
cipal officers fell on that bloody field, either 
dead or wounded. Among the few who 
escaped was Colonel Washington. But his 
escape was one of the strangest things that 
took place on that memorable day. One of 
the Indian chiefs in the ambush tried to kill 
him, without success. He said afterward 
that the Great Spirit must have been taking 
care of that young man ; for he aimed his 
gun at him deliberately a number of times, 
but always missed him. Washington had 
two horses shot under him on that day, and 
five bullets went through his clothes; but 
none of them hit him. The reason of it was 
that God wished to preserve his life for the 
great work he had afterwards to do for his 
country ; and God protected him. God was 
his shield on that day. And this is the best 
shield, because it is so safe. It is an impene- 
trable shield. Nothing can get through it 
without God's permission. 



320 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

Here is one more story to show how safe 
those are who have God for their shield. 

Many years ago, a gentleman in England, 
who lived in the country, kept a fine, large 
mastiff dog whose name was Hero. He was 
chained up during the day, but let loose at 
night to guard the place. It happened once 
that several sheep belonging to a neighboring 
farm had been killed on different nights. 
The owner of them charged Hero with being 
the cause of their death. One night, an- 
other sheep was killed, and it was plain that 
Hero had killed it. Under these circum- 
stances, the gentleman felt that, sorry as he 
was to part with his dog, he could not keep 
him any longer. So he said to his servant, 
in the presence of the dog, " John, get a 
piece of stout rope, and hang Hero behind 
the barn where he can't be seen from the 
house." 

Strange as it may seem, the dog must have 
understood what was said ; for he rose at 
once, leaped over a stone fence, ran off, and 
disappeared from that neighborhood. 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 321 

Seven years afterwards, this gentleman had 
some business in the north of England, on 
the borders of Scotland. At the close of a 
winter's day, he put up for the night at an 
inn by the wayside. He dismounted and 
went to the stable to see that his horse was 
properly taken care of. Here he was fol- 
lowed by a large mastiff dog, who tried in 
various ways to engage his attention. When 
he sat down in the hall, the dog came and 
sat by his side. He began to think there was 
something strange in the dog's manner. He 
patted him on the head, and spoke kindly to 
him. Encouraged by this, the dog put his 
paw on the gentleman's knee, and looked up 
earnestly into his face, as much as to say, 
" Don't you know me?" After looking at 
the dog for a while, he exclaimed, " Why, 
Hero, is this you ? " 

Then the poor creature danced and ca- 
pered about, and licked his old master's 
hands, and tried in every way to show how 
glad he was to see him once more. After 

this the dog remained by his side. On going 

21 



322 THE SUN OF EIGHTEOUSNESS. 

to bed at night, Hero followed him to his 
room. When he was about to undress, the 
dog seized the skirt of his coat, and drew his 
master towards the door of a closet that 
opened into that room. The door was fas- 
tened ; but after a great deal of trouble he 
contrived to get it open : when, to his sur- 
prise and horror, he found the dead body of 
a murdered man there. He saw in a moment 
what sort of a place he was in, and what he 
might expect that night. He made prepara- 
tions to defend himself as well as he could. 
He had a pair of double-barrelled pistols with 
him, and he saw that they were loaded, and 
primed, and ready for use. Then he fas- 
tened his door, and piled up all that was mov- 
able in the room against the door. Then he 
sat down to wait for the murderers, for he was 
sure they would come. Towards midnight 
he heard steps in the entry. Then the han- 
dle of his door was tried. Finding it fastened, 
they knocked. 

" Who's there ? " he asked. 

" Open the door," was the answer. 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 323 

" What do you want ? " 

" We want to come in." 

" You can't come in." 

u We must come in." 

" Then get in the best way you can, and 
I'll shoot the first man that enters." 

They sent for an axe to break through the 
door. While waiting for the axe, the gentle- 
man heard a carriage drive by. He opened 
the window and called for help. The car- 
riage stopped. Four men jumped out of it. 
By their help, the gentleman was relieved 
from his danger. The men who kept the 
house were caught and tried. It was found 
that they had killed a number of persons in 
that way. Some of them were hung and the 
rest put in prison. 

Of course Hero was taken back to his old 
home, and treated as such a faithful creature 
deserved to be. And when he died, his mas- 
ter had him buried, and a monument erected 
over him which told of his faithfulness. 

And surely the God who can protect his 
people in such strange ways may well say, 



324 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

" I am thy shield." This is the best shield, 
because it is so safe. 

" I am thy shield." This is the best shield, 
thirdly, because it is SO READY. 

In the days when shields were used, a 
soldier was not able to keep his shield all 
the time in a position to defend himself. 
But it is different with the best shield. 
Sometimes a soldier would be engaged in 
other things, and so not be able to keep his 
shield about him. But although Jesus has 
very many other things to attend to, although 
he has the government of the world on his 
hands, and the government of all other worlds, 
yet he always attends to the protection of his 
people, and cares for them as if this were the 
only thing he had to do. The soldier would 
have to lie down and sleep at night. Of 
course, when he was asleep, he could not hold 
his shield before him. But Jesus, who prom- 
ises to be our shield, has an eye that never 
slumbers and never sleeps. Sometimes, even 
when not asleep, the soldier's arm would be 
weary with carrying his shield ; and he would 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 325 

be obliged to lay it down while he rested. 
But Jesus, our shield, has an arm that is 
never weary. By day and by night, at home 
and abroad, he is our shield ; and he is always 
ready to protect and keep us. 

WILLIAM OF ORANGE, AND HIS DOG. 

There is a story told of William, Prince of 
Orange, known as William the Silent, which 
illustrates this part of our subject very well. 

He lived about three hundred years ago. 
He was the governor of Holland. That is 
a little country, but its people have always 
been very brave. Philip II., who was then 
king of Spain, was one of the most powerful 
kings in the world at that time. He was 
trying to conquer Holland, and to make the 
Dutch who lived there give up their Protes- 
tant religion and become Roman Catholics. 
He sent an army into this country to conquer 
it ; but, led on by their noble Prince, the 
Dutch people struggled like heroes for their 
liberty and their religion. When the king of 
Spain found that he could not conquer the 



326 THE SUN OF BIGHTEOTTSNESS. 

Prince of Orange in battle, he tried to get rid 
of him in another way. He offered a large 
sum of money to any one who would kill him. 
There are always bad men to be found, who 
will do as wicked a thing as this for money. 
Some Spanish soldiers, who wanted to get 
this reward, made up their minds to try to 
kill the Prince. 

One dark night, they managed to pass by 
the sentinels, and were going directly towards 
the tent in which the Prince was sleeping. 
They were near the tent. Their daggers 
were drawn. They were treading very cau- 
tiously, so as not to be heard. But the Prince 
had a faithful little dog, that always slept at 
the foot of his master's bed. He heard the 
tread of the murderers, although they were 
coming so carefully. He jumped up and 
began to bark. This wakened his master. 
He sprang up in bed, seized his pistol, and 
cried, " Halt ! who comes there ? " 

When the murderers found that the Prince 
was awake, they turned and fled. And thus 
that little dog saved his master's life. The 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 327 

Prince was asleep, and could not protect him- 
self. But he who says, " I am thy shield," 
was there to protect him. He is the best 
shield, because he is always ready. 

THE LOCK OF HAIR. 

" Do you see this lock of hair ? " said an 
old man one day to a friend with whom he 
was talking. 

"Yes; but what of it? I suppose it be- 
longed to some dear child who is now in 
heaven." 

"No," said the old man: "it is a lock of 
my own hair, and it is now nearly seventy 
years since it was cut from my head." 

" But why are you so careful about a lock 
of your own hair ? " asked his friend. 

" It has a strange story connected with it ; 
and I keep it because it reminds me of the 
wonderful care that God takes of his people. 

" At the time to which I refer, I was a 
little boy of four years old, with long, curly, 
golden locks. One day my father went into 
the woods to cut up a log, and I went with 



328 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

him. I was standing a little way behind 
him, or rather on one side, watching with 
interest the strokes of the heavy axe, as it 
went up and came down upon the wood, 
sending off splinters in all directions at every 
stroke. Some of the splinters fell at my feet, 
and I stooped to pick them up. In doing 
this, I stumbled, and fell forward, and in 
a moment my curty head lay upon the log. 

" I had fallen just at the moment when the 
axe was coming down with all its force. It 
was too late to stop the blow. Down came 
the axe. I screamed : my father fell to the 
ground in terror. He could not stay the 
stroke ; and, in the blindness which the sud- 
den horror caused, he thought he had surely 
killed his boy. 

" We soon recovered : I from my fright, 
and he from his terror. He caught me in his 
arms, and looked at me from head to foot to 
find the wound which he thought he must 
have given me. Not a drop of blood nor a 
scar was to be seen. He knelt down upon 
the grass, and gave thanks to God for this 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 329 

wonderful preservation. Then he took up 
his axe and looked at it, and found a few 
hairs upon its edge. He turned to the log he 
had been splitting; and there was a single 
lock of his boy's hair. It was sharply cut 
through, and laid upon the log. This was 
the loch. Do you wonder now that I keep 
it, and set store by it ? What a wonderful 
escape that was ! It was just as if an angel's 
hand had turned aside that axe. And who 
shall say it did not? It is just what we 
might expect of them. My father kept this 
lock all his days to remind him of God's 
care. He gave it to me on his dying-bed. 
I keep it as a precious treasure. I love to 
look at it. It tells me of my father's God, 
and mine. It encourages me to trust in him, 
and shows me how wonderfully he shields 
and protects his people." 

He is the best shield, because he is a shield 
always ready. 

One more story to show how ready this 
best shield is for our protection. The scene 
of this story lay in India. We may call it 



330 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 



BENNIE AND THE TIGER. 

A dear, little English boy, named Bennie, 
lay sleeping in the shady veranda of his 
Indian home. The nurse, who had been 
trusted with him, had neglected her charge, 
and left him while he was asleep. A great, 
fierce tiger, prowling in search of prey, find- 
ing the village very quiet, had ventured in 
among the dwellings. The English gentle- 
men were all absent ; the natives were in the 
rice-fields, and the ladies were taking their 
rest during the heat of the day. 

The tiger crept noiselessly past the quiet 
house, until he saw the sleeping child. Then 
with one bound he sprang upon him, grasped 
the flowing white robe of the child in his 
teeth, and darted off with it to his native 
jungle. Having secured his prize, he laid it 
down ; and, as the kitten often plays with 
a captive mouse before devouring it, so the 
tiger began sporting with the child. He 
walked round and round him, laid first one 
paw and then another gently on his plump, 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 331 

little limbs, and looked into the boy's beauti- 
ful face, as if his savage heart was almost 
melted by its sweetness. 

There was a brave little heart in Bennie, 
for he did not seem to be at all alarmed by 
his strange companion. He was well used 
to Nero, the large, black house dog ; the 
ponies were his chief favorites ; and he felt 
inclined to look on the tiger as if he were 
only Nero's brother. And when the tiger 
glared at him with his great fiery eyeballs, 
or when the sight of his dreadful teeth made 
his heart beat for a moment, he only returned 
the gaze, saying in baby language, " I'm not 
afraid of you, for I've got a father! You 
can't hurt Bennie, — Bennie's got a mamma ! " 
Oh, if we could only have the same trust in 
our heavenly Father, how well it would be 
for us ! 

All this time, while her darling boy was in 
such dreadful danger, his mother was sleep- 
ing. The faithless nurse returned by and 
by, to find the child gone. In her fright, she 
flew from house to house in search of him. 



332 THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

But the eye that never sleeps was watch- 
ing that dear child. The best shield was 
stretched over him. An aged native had 
heard the tiger give a low, peculiar growl, 
from which he knew that he had seized some 
prey. Taking his gun, he followed in his 
trail till he came near him. Then he hid 
himself carefully behind the bushes. He saw 
the terrible creature playing with the child, 
and dreaded every moment to see him tear it 
to pieces. He watched his opportunity to 
fire, fearful lest the ball intended for the 
tiger should hit the child. The proper mo- 
ment came. He took his aim, and fired. 
The tiger leaped, gave a howl of pain, ran a 
few steps, and fell dead by the side of the 
now frightened child. It was he who said, 
"I am thy shield," who watched over and 
protected that little one in such an hour of 
fearful danger. This is the best shield, for 
three reasons. In the first, because it is so 
large; in the second, because it is so safe; 
and in the third place, because it is so ready. 
Let us be sure that we make Jesus our 



JESUS THE SHIELD. 333 

friend. Then, wherever we go and wher- 
ever we stay, we shall be safe because we 
shall have this best shield for our protection. 
Remember that Jesus has said : — 

"I AM THY SHIELD." 



INDEX. 



Page 

Achilles 306 

Jesus, Comforting power of 36 

(Illustrated.) 

An hour's sunshine 35 

Sins rubbed out 36, 7 

Dying man comforted 38, 9 

Jesus, Drawing power of 12 

(Illustrated.) 

African child 16,17 

John Wesley 18 

Stubborn boy 19,20 

Jesus, Healing power of 26 

(Illustrated.) 

Missionary and Hindoo 27, 8 

Little Mary and her father 29-31 

Jesus, Light which shines from 49 

Jesus, Light from, how scattered 49 

(Illustrated.) 

The fly on the man's nose 51, 2 

Gipsy boy 52, 3 

Jesus, How he makes us beautiful 63 

(Illustrated.) 

The sculptor and his model 63, 4 

Chloe Lankton 65, 6 



336 INDEX. 

Page 

Life, Jesus the 201 

Life and Death, the difference between .... 202 

Life, Jesus the giver of 203 

(Illustrated.) 

The fountain of living water 204, 5 

Being alive 206-9 

Life, Jesus the supporter of 210 

(Illustrated.) 

The mountain 212 

The sea 213 

A child's faith 214, 15 

Life, Jesus the re warder of 223 

(Illustrated.) 

She got her reward 224-7 

True riches amidst poverty 228, 9 

Life, Jesus the example of 216 

(Illustrated.) 

The little girl and her copy 217, 18 

The example copied . 219-22 

Light, growth dependent on 54 

(Illustrated.) 

Potatoes in the cellar 55 

Acorn and the oak 56 

Red-haired beggar boy 57-60 

Light, life dependent on 47 

Light, beauty dependent on 61 

(Illustrated.) 

The garden and gallery 62 

Light, safety dependent on 67 

(Illustrated.) 

Stores protected by light 67, 8 

" Cling close to the rock " 69-70 

The protecting tree 71 



INDEX. 337 

Page 

Renown, Jesus the plant of 267 

Renowned, Jesus, for his power to heal .... 269 
(Illustrated.) 

Christ's labors upon earth 270, 1 

The soul doctor 273, 4 

The dying smuggler 275-8 

Renowned, Jesus, for his power to comfort . . . 278 
(Illustrated.) 

The fountain in the desert 278-80 

The father's face 280,1 

God's hidden ones 281, 5 

Renowned, Jesus, for his power to bless .... 286 
(Illustrated.) 

A noble answer . .* 286, 7 

Make mother happy 287-9 

The young miner's death 290, 1 

Bonnie Christie 292-4 

Old Sarah's speech 295-7 

Saviour, Jesus the, great power of 110 

(Illustrated.) 

Story of Saint Christopher ..... 112, 13 

The man that paid 114, 16 

Saviour,' Jesus the, great willingness of ... . 116 
(Illustrated.) 

Take freely 118,19 

A sailor's experience 120 

" Seeing I am Jesus* lamb " 122 

Story of James Rivers 123, 4 

Saviour, Jesus the, great tenderness of .... 126 
(Illustrated.) 

Joy over the saved 127, 8 

He carries them up the hill 129 

I take care of my lambs 130 

22 



338 INDEX. 

Pagb 

If you love me, lean hard 131 

Our hand in Christ's 132 

Shield, Jesus the 301 

(Illustrated.) 

Abraham's experience 301, 5 

Shield, the best, because it is so large 305 

(Illustrated.) 

A friendly warning 308 

Saved by prayer 309 

The Lord's wall 310,11 

The squirrel and the robber 311, 13 

Shield, the best, because it is so safe 313 

(Illustrated.) 

Hezekiah's deliverance 315 

The persecutor's death 316, 17 

Washington at Fort du Quesne .... 318, 19 

Hero and his master 320-23 

Shield, the best, because it is so ready .... 324 
(Illustrated.) 

William of Orange and his dog .... 325, 6 

The lock of hair 327-9 

Bennie and the tiger 330, 2 

Star, the, giving guidance 79 

(Illustrated.) 

The pole-star and the pointers .... 80 

How to escape the trap 82, 3 

Henry Kirke White and the star of Beth- 
lehem 84, 5 

Star, the, giving hope * . . . 86 

(Illustrated.) 

The light in the mine ....... 87-90 

The good Arab and his phial .... 91-4 



INDEX. 339 

Page 

Star, the, giving joy 95 

(Illustrated.) 

Mont Blanc and the morning star ... 96, 7 

Singing in the light 98, 9 

The African's joy in Jesus ..... 100 

Talking with Jesus 101 

Sun, the, drawing power of 12 

(Example of.) 

Neptune, the distance of 13, 14 

Sun, the, healing power of 23 

(Illustrated.) 

The consumptive girl 25 

Sun, the, comforting power of 32 

(Illustrated.) 

Dr. Kane and the arctic sun 33, 4 

Truth, Jesus the 169 

Truth, different kinds of 170 

Truth, in Jesus the best . 171 

Truth, in Jesus the best, because it sanctifies . . 172 
(Illustrated.) 

The martyr Stephen 173 

The spirit of the martyr Stephen . . . 174, 5 

The short measure 176 

" It's mighty improvm'" 177,8 

A child's wish 179 

The thistle in the heart 180 

Truth, in Jesus the best, because it satisfies . . 181 
(Illustrated.) 

The hungry body and the hungry soul . 182 

A sermon in stone 183, 4 

The happy skipper 185-8 

Truth, in Jesus the best, because it saves . . . 189 
(Illustrated.) 



340 INDEX. 

Page 

The pickpocket's story 190, 1 

The saving word 192, 4 

Leaves from the tree of life 195, 6 

Vine, Jesus compared to the 234 

Vine, Jesus compared to the, because of the shelter 

he gives 234 

(Illustrated.) 

A child-like faith 237-40 

Armed with the Bible 240-4 

Vine, Jesus compared to the, because of the refresh- 
ment he gives 244 

(Illustrated.) 

The dying soldier boy 246 

Wanting to confess 247-9 

How to be happy 249-51 

The happy shepherd boy 251-3 

Vine, Jesus compared to the, because of fruitful- 

ness 253 

(Illustrated.) 

Bible first 255,6 

The faithful prayer 257-9 

A good sign 256-7 

The power of kindness 259,60 

What a little boy can do 260-3 

Way, Jesus the, in two senses 137, 8 

Way, the, marks of. A plain way 139 

(Illustrated.) 

It is dark . 141, 2 

Make it so plain that I can get hold of it 143-6 

Way, the, marks of. A broad way 146 

Whosoever and whatsoever 147 

(Illustrated.) 

A sailor saved 148 



INDEX. 341 

Page 

The lost restored 149-51 

" Because I axed him " . ...... 152 

Way, the, marks of. A narrow way 153 

(Illustrated.) 

The vessel at anchor 154 

" Let go that branch " 155-7 

Way, the, marks of. The only way 158 

(Illustrated.) 

Jesus will go with me 160, 1 

Which way shall I take 162, 3 



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